If Only
by son-goku5
Summary: Series of one shots, some longer, some shorter, depicting AU moments. Stories that never happened like that but some with dialog from the show. Rated T for safety, though some of the Chapters will have salacious things in them. Chapter 14 is up. Please Read & Review :)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle (but I certainly would like to)**

**A/N: I know that there are a lot of What If stories out there but hey, it's fanfiction and everybody can write anything ^^. I thought about all those moments where something just went wrong for them.**

**So, I hope you enjoyed this one. Please read and review. Compliments are welcome, criticism appreciated and if you hate and flame, Sally Struthers will bring little kids to your door and will make you feel very bad about yourself :D**

**If only Castle never rekindled his relationship with Gina at the end of season 2. If only Kate said something. Starts with the dialog at the end of the show.**

* * *

After Kate ended her relationship with Tom, she turned her head and listened to Castle and the rest of the group talking in the room.

"It was very emotional." Castle told the others. "There were a lot of tears. Alexis was fine by the way." That sentence earned a heartfelt laugh from the guys and Lanie.

"I gotta say Castle, we're gonna miss you around here." Esposito said.

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss you too." Castle responded quietly.

"Still leaving the coffee machine, right?" Ryan asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Can't have you suffer in my absence."

"We could really use one of those down in the morgue." Lanie said.

"With Castle gone I hope our clearance rate doesn't drop." Captain Montgomery said, earning another laugh from the group. Just then Kate entered smiling and took a beer from the basket.

"Oh, look who's off duty." Castle said.

"Yeah Castle, I'm not all work." she responded with a forced smile on her face.

"Don't get into a drinking contest with her." Lanie said to him. "She can take you."

"Thank you."

"Oh, I don't need to drink to take him." Beckett said smugly, earning her a look from Lanie.

"Uh, what's gotten into you." Lanie said to her.

Her face turning serious, she turned to Castle.

"Castle, do you have a second?" she asked him.

"Of course, yeah." he answered and both headed out to the bullpens, the others looking at the two as Kate closed the door.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Look, I know I'm not the easiest person to get to know and I don't always let on what's on my mind but this past year working with you... I had a really good time..."

"Yeah, me too." he interrupted.

"So, I was thinking about your offer of me accompanying you to the Hamptons." she said in a low voice. "Uh... does that offer still stand? I...I could really use some downtime."

"Sure." he answered. "But you do realize that I planned to spend the whole summer there. It would help if you could find a ride home because I tell you, when I'm writing, sometimes I'm in a zone and you can not get me out of it." he said grinning.

"That's okay, I'm pretty sure I have some vacation days left." Kate said smiling.

"A few days? Try a few weeks." came the voice of Captain Montgomery, who had opened the door to the party room.

"Sir? What do you mean?" Kate asked.

"Beckett, how many vacations did you have in the last five years?" Kate's silence was enough answer for him. "You have about ten or even twelve weeks accrued."

"What?"

"You heard me. So if you want a longer downtime, I can sign you the leave of absence."

"But won't Human Resources object to a detective taking a three month vacation?" Castle asked the Captain.

"Not so much if the Captain, which is me, signs it. If they still object, I can talk to them, I know the HR manager. If push comes to shove, I put in a warning about a possible burnout syndrome. So go home, go packing and take a long vacation. You deserve it."

"Uh, okay." Kate said, still surprised at the turn of events. She was thinking about a two-day weekend, now it seems she was taking 84-day weekend. She didn't know if she should be happy or worried. She was looking forward to a nice weekend with Castle, but the thought of 12 weeks filled her with slight apprehension.

"So Kate" Castle interrupted her thinking "go home and pack for a three month vacation. By the way, I have a pool and a beach not far from my house, so don't forget a bathing suit. And don't worry, there is a dry cleaner in town, so you don't need to bring your entire stock of clothing. I'll pick you up tomorrow at 9 am. And now I'll head home and pack as well."

"Good... Until tomorrow." Kate said to him, still stunned by the turn of events.

* * *

When Kate was home she stood in front of her closet, unsure what to take with her. Behind her were several opened, empty suitcases and bags. She started grabbing the essential stuff, socks, shirts, pants and underwear.

Smiling to herself, she also grabbed the special underwear that she wouldn't use everyday. A few thongs and very sexy bras that didn't leave much unseen. Remembering Castle's comment about pool and beach, she grabbed several sets of bikinis as well. Satisfied at her choices and with butterflies in her stomach, she ate a light dinner and went to bed.

* * *

True to his word, Castle rang her doorbell at 9 am. His eyes widened as he saw the amount of luggage Kate packed. She could only smile as he tried to carry every case and bag at once and getting stuck in the door.

"Damn Castle, let me carry at least some of my stuff." Kate said laughing, and took two bags and a suitcase from him. They put her stuff in the trunk and on the backseat and took off for a long vacation. Kate looked at him as he concentrated on driving and smiled to herself.

* * *

After their arrival, Castle showed her around the house. '_House? It's a freaking villa'_ she thought. But he was right. It was beautiful. The pool sparkled with clear water and the view from his backyard on the ocean was breathtaking. She was sitting on one of Castle's lawn chairs, looking out at the Atlantic.

"Hey." Castle said to her, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Since it's lunchtime, you want to go out? I don't really have any fresh food here right now. And I don't want your first impression of my hosting abilities be canned food."

"Sounds nice. Italian would be great." she said. "And after that, grocery shopping."

"Sure. I know a great Italian restaurant. But lets unpack first. Come on, I'll show you the inside. Then you can choose your room."

"Choose my room?" Kate asked him. "How many bedrooms does this place have?"

"Uh, five actually. Mine, one for my mother and Alexis, and two guest rooms. Each have their own bathroom with shower. The master bathroom has a bathtub along with a hot tub. I have other rooms that can be converted to bedrooms when the need should arise, like inviting a lot of people for a party or something like that."

He offered her his hand to help her stand up and she gladly took it. She looked at their hands and inwardly jumped in joy when he didn't release her hand immediately after she stood.

* * *

After she unpacked her stuff in one of the guest rooms, they went out. As Castle had promised, the restaurant was amazing. They sat in a quiet little booth at the back of the place, away from the entrance, offering them privacy to enjoy their meal. Although it was the Hamptons and famous people tended to be more numerous here, Rick didn't want to tempt fate and have some reporter seeing him with what others would call a 'new conquest'.

"So Kate, what brought this decision on to accompany me here? I thought you had plans with Demming." he asked her, after they placed their orders to the waiter.

"Yeah, but at almost literally the last minute I realized that he wasn't for me."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No, not right now."

"Okay, maybe later. But first, lets eat." he said grinning when he noticed the waiter closing in the their food. Castle had ordered Pasta with a 'special' sauce while Kate chose Lasagna.

"Oh my god!" Kate exclaimed. "This is amazing."

"I know, right?" Castle replied smiling.

"You have to try this." Kate said, taking a piece of her lasagna with her fork and holding it to him.

"You're right, it tastes great. Here, try some of my pasta. This special sauce is awesome. "Rick said, rolling some of his pasta on his fork and offering it to her. She ate it and moaned as the sauce melted like ice on her tongue, sending shivers of delight through her body.

"Seriously, we need to switch meals."

"No way, woman. Eat your own."

"Spoilsport."

"Nah, you like it."

Castle tried to take another piece of her lasagna, earning him a slap on the wrist from Kate.

"Next time, I'll use the fork." she said smiling.

"Just wait for the desert, your taste buds will do somersaults."

He was right. After finishing their meals, both ordered a piece of pie for desert. Castle chose a poppy seed pie layered with strawberry jam and topped with vanilla cream while Kate ordered a large piece of strawberry cream pie.

Kate went into her pie with abandon, taking the smallest bites possible to lengthen the experience, moaning with every bite she took. Rick only watched her while nibbling at his own cake, savoring the taste and view.

"Want to try mine again?" he asked her. offered her a piece of his pie again. She smiled and ate the piece.

"Mmmh, the strawberry jam in there makes it especially delicious. Seriously, how does the pastry chef do that? I've never had a pie this good in any other restaurant in my life."

"I wondered too for a while until I realized that ignorance is bliss. Now, let me try some of yours." he said, moving his fork to her pie.

"Don't you dare, Mister Castle. I have my fork ready to pounce." she purred, picking another bite and very slowly putting the fork in and out of her mouth, her eyes never leaving his.

"Devil woman. You owe me for this."

"Oh, I think I can find a way to make up for it."

His eyes went wide at her comment, and she laughed. After a few more minutes, both their plates were empty. Rick paid and left a generous tip. As Kate went towards the exit, she noticed Rick getting a box from the pastry chef before he joined her.

"What is in there?"

"A surprise for later." he said, putting the box into the cooler in the trunk of his car after she got into the car. A short time later, he joined her. "Okay, now it's up to grocery shopping.

* * *

The shopping didn't take as long as she feared. The store was modest but well stocked and only a few other customers were with them in there. Unloading their full cart onto the checkout conveyor, paying and reloading the cart only took five minutes and less then twenty minutes later they were back at Rick's home.

"Well, lets put these things away and then it's time for some relaxation. The pool awaits you, milady." he said, mocking a bow like a butler. Kate just smiled and started filling the fridge and shelves with their groceries.

Rick could only watch as she did that and wondered why that scene of her putting away groceries, moving through his kitchen and humming gently to herself looked so natural and real. He could get used to that.

"I'm done. Now I will go to my room and change and then we'll see if your claims about the pool are real."

"Yes, they are. I'll meet you out there." he said, running out to the car and taking the box he got from the restaurant and putting it into the fridge after she went upstairs before following her to change too.

It took him only a minute and soon he was sitting in a chair next to his pool, notes and pencil in his hands, trying to get the story of his new book into gear, losing himself in his imagination. His attention was only partially roused when he saw a figure entering the pool area from the corner of his eye.

His attention only wandered from his notes when the figure turned into Kate. Watching here, his body suddenly surged into an upright position.

* * *

After Kate changed into one of her more skimpy bikinis, with a very revealing top and bottoms that showed more than they hid, she put on her sunglasses, went out to the pool with a towel around her body and saw Castle sitting shirtless on one of the chairs, sunglasses on and scribbling notes on several pieces of paper with a pencil like he always did when he bounced around ideas in his head.

Smiling to herself, she had an idea to attract his attention. Stepping out of the shade, she flattened the pool lounger she chose to lie on. Turning towards him, she loosened her towel, took hold of two ends and spread her arms wide, letting the towel slip down behind her. When she noticed Castle stopping his writing, she had to fight the urge to grin.

She couldn't see his eyes but she could imagine where they wandered. She turned around deliberately slow and bend down to spread her towel on the lounger, giving him an open and firm view of her only semi-covered ass. She again had to fight the urge to laugh when she heard the pencil drop to the floor.

She sat down on the lounger and slowly began rubbing sunscreen on her arms, legs and front, keeping her eyes on Castle to see his reaction. Her expectations weren't disappointed when he saw him sitting upright, staring at her, his writing hand still in the same position as before he dropped the pencil.

When she had finished, she turned around and lied down on her front. Her head turned to the left in the direction of the ocean but under her sunglasses she was watching him from the corner of her eyes. With slow deliberation, she reached behind her and undid the knot of her bikini top and let the straps fall to her side. She again had to keep a laugh in her, when she saw his mouth drop open.

"Castle?" she called him with her bedroom voice. "Would you please rub sunscreen on my back?" she asked holding up the tube of sunscreen.

His reaction was to press down on his notes, making the pages fly out of his hands. At this, she had to turn her head away from him and started laughing, trying her hardest not to shake with the laughter.

"Uh...I...I...sure." he stammered and shuffled over. Sitting down on the side of her lounger, he took the sunscreen and began to rub it slowly on her back.

* * *

When Kate asked him to rub sunscreen on her, Rick thought he'd have a heart attack. Here he was, sitting innocently by his pool, thinking about a way to incorporate another sex scene in his newest Nikki Heat novel, when she came out of the house and presented her awesome body in the most sexy bikini he had ever seen. Not only was the top almost non-existent, the bottom was half a thong and showed off her ass in the most impressive way.

And she had to bend over. He didn't feel his pencil drop. He was more busy keeping his tongue from rolling out of his mouth. Then she started to rub sunscreen on her. She must have done it deliberately slow, it had to be. He wasn't able not to stare. Then she lay down and what did she do? She undid her top and asked him to rub sunscreen on her. He noticed his notes flying out of his hands and he didn't care.

He took the tube and started applying the cream to her back, doing it slowly to enjoy the feeling of her body for as long as possible. Starting using both hands, he unknowingly turned the rubbing to a half-massage. She didn't seem to mind. It lasted for about five minutes, until he realized that his fingers brushed the sides of her bare breasts and he froze.

* * *

She was enjoying herself. Not only did she get him to rub lotion on her, he turned it into a massage. How come his hands felt so good on her. He was a writer, they couldn't be that firm. Suddenly she felt him stop moving. Moving her body a fraction she realized that his fingers were on the side of her breasts.

"Castle?" she asked, wanting him to continue and disappointed when his hands snapped away from her body.

"I'm sorry, so sorry." he stammered. "I have the sudden urge to take go swimming." she heard him say and his statement was followed by a loud splash when he jumped into his pool. She snuggled into her towel and smiled to herself. Part one was complete, he saw her almost naked and he felt her body. It won't be long until he was convinced to act on the feelings he clearly had for her. She decided to give him a month, tops. If he didn't do something after that, she would take matters into her own hands. Her thoughts were still with him when she dozed off.

* * *

Rick climbed out of the pool and dried himself off with a towel. What was happening? One minute he was massaging Kate, the next he had to fight hard to resist the urge to start fondling Kate's breasts. But the swim cooled him off. He looked at her an saw her dozing on the lounger. He decided that now would be the perfect time for some coffee.

* * *

Kate's woke up when she smelled the scent of freshly brewed coffee along with a sweet undertone her olfactory senses couldn't quite place. She opened her eyes to see Rick sitting next to her with a tray in his hands. On the tray were a pot of coffee, two cups and, to her surprise, a piece of the amazing strawberry cream pie she had for desert during their lunch date.

When she sat up, he immediately turned his head away. Wondering why, she realized that her bikini top was still unfastened and lying on the lounger. She grabbed it and put it back on, smiling at his mental strength. While she wouldn't have objected if he had looked at her breasts, she knew full well that it would be too much for the first day. On the other hand, his awkwardness and slight embarrassment made her want him even more. She might not be able to wait for a month.

The rest of the day went by way too fast for her liking. After having coffee, they took a long walk on the beach, with Kate making sure that her arm never left his. When they saw clouds gathering in the sky they turned back.

"Listen Kate, I don't want to appear rude and blow you off but my head is swimming with ideas. I need to get them written down before I forget again."

"Go ahead. I just watch some TV."

Rick disappeared into his bedroom and soon Kate could hear the clicks of furious typing.

Later that night, after Kate got ready for bed by putting on a thigh length see-through nightie that only covered the real juicy parts of the body with non see-through fabric, she walked towards Rick's room to show him what he could have by starting a conversation about nothing in particular. Peeking in, she saw him reclining on his bed, several cushions behind him, headphones on his head and typing like crazy. Not wanting to interrupt him when his creative juices flowed, she went back to her room and to bed.

* * *

Kate jerked awake after thunder rumbled outside. Rain splattered against the window and lightning flashes illuminated the night sky. After getting a glass of water from the kitchen, she came back up. When she was about to get back into her room, she noticed that there was still light coming from Castle's room.

Taking a peek inside, she saw him as he was before, headphones on and his laptop on his lap. His head was lying on his pillows and he was breathing slow and deep breaths which told her that he probably fell asleep while writing. She noticed that his bedroom was beautiful. It had a fireplace where a fire was burning low, casting the room in a soft light.

She took the laptop away to put a blanket over him but paused when she saw the text that he had written before he fell asleep. She skimmed over it and saw salacious dialog and realized that it was most likely another sex scene between Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook.

Although she knew that it was wrong to read what he wrote and he'd probably be really mad she couldn't resist. She scrolled up and began to read the entire scene.

* * *

It took her ten minutes to finish reading and by then she was ridiculously turned on. She could feel herself sweating slightly, her breath uneven and moist between her legs. She looked at the man on the bed who wrote this and wondered how an innocent looking man like this could write something so hot and steamy as this. It surpassed the scene from the first novel by far and was prove of a very dirty imagination.

She saved his work and put the laptop down, closing the lid. About to leave, she turned around to look at him once more and goes to his side to take his headphones off. Before she could stop herself, her eyes went to his shorts and her thoughts to what was inside.

Prying her eyes away from his crotch, she carefully lifted the headphones off and being curious she put them to her ear to listen to his choice of music. The running song put a smile to her lips. Wicked Game by Chris Isaak was a great song for anything romantic. On the other hand, listening to it did nothing to calm her raging hormones that were still rioting through her body after reading the sex scene and her thoughts and eyes again wandered unconsciously to his shorts. And although she knew it was really really wrong, she couldn't stop herself from lifting the waistband of his shorts up to take a peek inside to see the good stuff.

Her eyes went wide at the sight that greeted her before she squeezed them shut again. She stood up and moved towards the door but before she could exit, she heard Rick moan her and Nikki's name in his sleep. That little involuntary whispering broke something in her. She couldn't help it. She wanted him. Needed him. Needed him to understand that she wanted him. Standing again next to him, she wondered what to do. Just jumping on him was out of the question, it would make her look desperate and that was totally not gonna happen.

After a minute of standing there, looking down at him, she remembered the scene she just read. She ripped two thin strips of lace from her dress, wincing internally as she did so.

_'What I do for love' _ she thought and bound his wrists to the bedposts using the strips of lace.

Crouching down next to his head she began whispering into his ear.

"Jameson, I told you what would happen if you were a bad boy again. And now Nikki is very angry." His mouth turned into a sly smile in his sleep and she grinned. Sleep suggestions still worked. She moved down and slowly removed his shorts without him waking up. Getting a full view of his manhood her eyes went wide again.

Quickly removing her panties, she sat down on his thighs and started rubbing his manhood. At her gentle touches, Rick slowly opened his eyes.

"Kate?" he whispered.

"Jameson! I will overlook the fact that you just said the name of another woman while I'm on top of you. But you will have to make it up to me even more now!" she purred in her best bedroom voice.

"Your wish is my command, Nikki. Do with me what you will." he replied and closed his eyes again.

She smiled and after a minute more of rubbing him hard, she lifted her hips up and slowly sat down on his hardness. She gasped loudly as he filled her out. After getting used to his size, she started rotating her hips, causing a moan to escape from his mouth. Not able to control herself, she picked up speed way too soon and with a yelp of lust and no small part surprise she had her first climax after only a few minutes.

Not even stopping her hip movements, she bend down and kissed Rick hard. He reciprocated immediately, invading her mouth with his tongue, fighting for dominance. Ever increasing the speed of her movements, their lips parted with a lout smack when she felt another climax growing inside her. She arched her back and let out a cry of pure pleasure before collapsing on Rick's chest.

"Keep moving, Nikki." Rick growled beneath her.

_'You've got to be kidding me' _she thought but nonetheless slowly restarted her movement on him earning another gasp from him.

* * *

He was having the best dream of his life. It felt so real. He was living the scene he remembered writing. He was Jameson Rook, his hands were bound to the bedposts, Detective Nikki Heat on top of him, riding herself to oblivion. He couldn't help it, he needed to touch her. His attention shifted from the woman to his bound hands as he tried to untie the knots.

What he didn't realize, doing that was the proverbial Think-about-baseball-to-last-longer thing, giving Kate an even longer experience.

* * *

She was dying. She was sure of it. At some point, her body had to give out just from the pleasure coursing through it. Her head was tilted upwards, her eyes closed and she was bouncing up and down like crazy to receive every ounce of joy possible and therefore didn't see Rick freeing himself from the cloths she had bound him with.

As she was changing her movements, there were suddenly hands on her body, strong arms enveloping her and flipping her around on her back. Opening her eyes, she was surprised to see a now unbound Rick Castle on top of her.

"How did you..." she started but he cut her off.

"Shhh."

He dipped his head to steal a slow and sensual kiss from her as he opened her legs and entered her very slowly. Kate moaned into the kiss and wrapped her legs around him again. It felt so good to be under him. Although he was heavy, it wasn't enough to give her a sense of discomfort. She arched her hips up in rhythm with his him, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as she felt him pick up the pace of his thrusts.

Rick smiled inwardly at the sounds she was making. He didn't know why, but the way she whimpered and moaned under him made him shiver with delight. He loved feeling her hot and slightly sweaty skin against his.

Kate felt her body starting to tremble uncontrollably. She arched her hips into him again, harder this time, urging him to pick up the pace even more. Rick could only chuckle at her outburst of need. He slowly withdrew himself from her, which earned him a lout protest from Kate.

"What are you doing?" she asked incredulously. Rick only chuckled at that.

"Don't worry. Turn around." he grinned as she turned around onto her stomach.

"Lets continue." he whispered and entered her again.

This new angle brought a whole new level of sensations for Kate. She buried her face into the pillows, groaning and moaning and letting out the occasional scream. Her hands flailed around aimlessly, she couldn't decide if she wanted to grip the sheets or him in an effort to get him into her even deeper.

His hands were on his hips, squeezing her skin and moving her in sync with his own movements. She felt one of his hands squeeze between her body and the sheets, moving down her body until it was between her legs and it started to stroke her in rhythm with his thrusts.

Kate's head came up as she gasped loudly and started to wiggle and writhe under him. What he was doing to her was akin to torture. Between the rubbing in front and the thrusts from behind, she was lost in the sweet agony of coitus. She couldn't stop moaning and groaning into the pillow, saying his name over and over again. Her body started to tremble even harder as she came closer and closer to going over the cliff.

"Oh god Castle, please don't stop now!" she screamed as she felt the climax coming. She tried to brace herself but she could never have anticipated the intensity of it. It started down between her legs, with the god that still was both pounding and rubbing her, and climbed up her spine. Her entire body was trembling uncontrollably, shaking uncontrollably in a building orgasm. As the power of the wave increased almost beyond endurance, it suddenly broke in a mighty explosion of pleasure in her brain.

When she was almost being blinded by lust, she felt him tremble as well and with a mighty groan he collapsed on top of her. His head next to hers, she could hear him breathing heavily. Her own breathing was no better, both were entirely spent, still basking in the aftermath of the pleasure that went through both their bodies. After what he just did to her, he definitely had earned many, many more orgasms and she was more than happy to provide them for him as often as possible.

If only they had done this earlier. She wasted one year by not giving him to her feelings for him.

"Beckett?"

If only she had said something earlier.

"Beckett?"

Why was he saying his name? _'Oh my god, I called him Castle earlier, not Rook.'_ But why did he sound different?

"Beckett!"

If only they would be able to sill work together. After this night, she would never be able to have him at her desk without the urge to jump into his lap.

"Beckett!"

When she opened her eyes, she saw Esposito standing in front of her.

"Beckett, are you alright?"

Turning her head, she saw Castle and Gina in the elevator as the doors closed.

If only she said something earlier.

"I'm alright Espo, but I need to go to the ladies room." she said, with a look in her eyes that betrayed her being so not okay.

After she entered the ladies room, she checked all the stalls. When she found them empty, she went into the same one she had read the sex scene of Castle's first Nikki Heat novel in. Only when she sat on the lid with her knees against her chest and arms wrapped around herself did she allow the tears to fall. She cried and cried, couldn't stop. She continued crying after Lanie entered the bathroom as well, and took Kate in her arms. They stood there for several minutes, while Kate cried tears of sorrow and disappointment.

If only she had acted on her feelings for Castle earlier.

If only she hadn't met Demming.

If only...

* * *

**A/N: I know that there are a lot of What If stories out there but hey, it's fanfiction and everybody can write anything ^^. I haven't written for a while and after getting to know the show and watching it begging to end in a week (DVDs for the win ^^) I thought about all those moments where something just went wrong for them.**

**So, I hope you enjoyed this one. Please read and review. Compliments are welcome, criticism appreciated and if you hate and flame, Sally Struthers will bring little kids to your door and will make you feel very bad about yourself :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Usual Disclaimer: I don't own Castle but I can make a mean chili con carne.**

**If only he had been faster...**

* * *

"Roy Montgomery taught me what it meant to be a cop. He taught me that we are bound by our choices. We are more than our mistakes..."

Castle watched Kate as she delivered the eulogy at Captain Montgomery's funeral. Her voice full of emotions but steady, he stood a few feet away, watching her as she spoke to the assembled mourners.

He saw them all there. His own family, Alexis and Martha, the boys, Lanie, Montgomery's family, almost every police officer from the 12th precinct. As his gaze swept across the rest of the graveyard, he saw a flash of light on one of the gravestones and a strange shape appear from behind a tree.

"Kate!" Without even thinking about what it was, he threw himself towards the woman he loved.

A sound like a single loud cough came to his ears before a sharp pain blossomed in his right side. As he lay on the grass, his body half covering Kate, she squirmed out from him with anger on her face.

"What the hell are you doing, Castle?!" she shouted at him, furious at his stunt. What was he thinking, tackling her during her eulogy in front of her colleagues and friends.

She noticed that most of her friends and colleagues were also on the ground, frightened at something. Some seemed to scan their surroundings and had their sidearms drawn and were taking off in different directions. She was still prying Castle's arm from her to sit up when she noticed Alexis running towards them, screaming for her father, having tears in her eyes.

That was when Kate noticed the moisture soaking through her uniform. A look at Castle confirmed her worst fears. The ride side of his suit was ripped open, blood running from a large looking wound, staining her and the grass around him red. His eyes were open, looking at her but glazed over.

"Oh no, no, no, no." Kate stammered, rolling him on his back, taking his face between her hands.

Before she could do anything else, she was bodily shoved away by a redheaded young woman, crying hard, running her hands all around her father's body, not able to get a single word out through the tears.

"Kate, get her off him, I need space!" Kate heard Lanie shout. Her best friends words snapping her out of her own paralysis, she grabbed Alexis and pulled her back, the young redhead fighting her all the time, forcing Kate to use every ounce of strength she possessed just to hold on to her.

In a moment of epiphany, she realized that her holding a crying Alexis in her arms and apologizing to her over and over, while she herself fought with her tears mirrored the scene in the hangar, where Castle had dragged and carried her out, while she fought against him and him holding her tight between himself and the car, apologizing over and over. Now she knew how he felt during this whole thing.

She saw Lanie rip open Castle's jacket and shirt, Karpowski next to her, who was pressing her own jacket onto the wound to slow down the bleeding, while Lanie started CPR to keep Castle alive until the paramedics arrived. She looked around and saw Ryan, Esposito and other detectives and uniforms running towards the back exit of the graveyard, weapons drawn and shouting.

Hearing shots, she threw herself and Alexis down, shielding the little one with her body against whatever was happening now. She realized that Alexis was not fighting anymore, the young woman crying desperate tears of desperation.

"Kate, get her away from here! She shouldn't see this!" she heard Lanie shout.

Kate noticed that Alexis was staring unblinking at the unmoving figure of her father, lying on on his back, the ME fighting for his life. She turned her around, apologizing over and over again and saw the paramedics running towards them, the ambulance only a few feet away.

After a few minutes, when the paramedics had done their prep work and picked Castle up on the gurney, Kate got up herself, dragged Alexis with her and ran towards the waiting ambulance.

"Kate, you will not ride with us." she heard Lanie say.

"What? Of course I will. It's my fault he was shot!" she practically screamed back.

"Listen girl, and listen carefully." Lanie hissed into her ear after wrapping her arms around her. "You need to stay with Alexis. Her father has just been shot in front of her and she needs a strong, trusted person to be her pillar to lean against. You are that person. Be there for her. Put her and Castle's mother in your car, drive to the hospital and keep an eye on them."

With that, Lanie jumped into the ambulance and pulled the doors close behind her. Seeing the ambulance take off, she dragged Alexis towards Martha, past a crying Karpowski, who was still sitting on the ground, her bloody jacket still in her hand.

"Martha, come on, we're going to the hospital."

Without waiting for a response, she grabbed Martha's hand, turned towards the exit, dragging the two redheads behind her.

* * *

It had been hours. Hours of not knowing, while the surgical team worked on Rick. Alexis was lying on one of the couches, in a restless sleep of mental exhaustion, her face still streaked with tears, while Martha sat in one of the chairs, staring blankly ahead, her own tears falling freely. Kate wanted nothing more that to join them, letting her own emotions run three but remembered Lanie's words.

_'Be their pillar of strength.'_

At some point, Lanie had joined them, giving Kate a hug and not saying a word. She noticed a commotion in the hallway and stepped outside to see Ryan and Esposito talking to Lanie. She closed in on them.

"Guys, what's the situation?"

"The guy that shot Castle, he's dead. One of the uniforms hit him in the head when he was fleeing." Ryan said.

"Yeah, it was a lucky shot." Javi confirmed. "I saw him, he didn't target specifically, he took the shot while running. Now we have the body in the morgue, we were just telling Lanie so she can start her work, so hopefully we can identify him."

"I'll go right away." Lanie said, taking off.

"I'll come with you." Javi told her.

"No, you will stay here with Beckett and little Castle. She needs every friendly face now. I have one of the uniforms drive me."

Without waiting for a response she took off. Esposito was smart enough not to argue with her and went back to the others.

"How is he?" Ryan asked, barely keeping his voice level.

"We don't know, he's still in surgery." Kate answered. "It's my fault guys. I was the target. He's in there because of me." she said, pointing towards the OR.

"Listen to me kiddo and listen carefully." they head Martha say who had stepped out of the visitors room and into their circle. "Richard knew full well the risks he was taking when he decided to follow you around. And while this is the second worst thing I imagined happening to him, I don't hold you responsible. And I'm his mother. So don't you dare start to wallow in self pity about something you can't change now.

"But I must warn you. Alexis will probably give you a hard time. Deep down she knows that you aren't responsible but she will most likely lash out in her grief and anger. Whatever she says to you, don't take it to heart. Be strong. Stay strong, for your sake, for her sake and especially for Richard's sake. Alexis will need a strong parenting figure now more than ever and I won't be able to fill that position. If she calls you names, take it. If she tries to shut you out of her life, don't let her. Be there for her. Please."

The last words was no more than a whisper, the tears running freely down Martha's face. Kate couldn't say a word and simply hugged her tight. The group went back into the visitors room when the head surgeon came in.

"The family of Richard Castle?" he asked the group.

"I'm his mother. And this is his daughter." Martha said, pointing a finger at Alexis' prone figure. Kate shook her awake.

"Sweetie, news about your father."

Alexis snapped awake and sat up.

"Please have good news." she pleaded with an emotional voice.

"My name is Dr. Matthews. I have both good and bad news. The good news first. Your father was extremely lucky. The bullet punched through his right arm and hit the right side of his chest. A fragment of it tore a gash into the right lung and embedded itself into his heart, causing blood to pool in his chest cavity."

"How is that lucky?" Ryan asked incredulously.

"When the bullet penetrated his arm, it grazed the humerus..." the doctor started.

"...which caused its fragmentation and a change in trajectory." Esposito finished, his sniper training connecting the dots.

"Exactly. If the bullet had simply penetrated his chest, he would be dead."

The simple but devastating truth caused Alexis to break out in tears again. Kate took her in his arms and held her tightly.

"What's the bad news?" she asked the doctor over Alexis' sobbing.

"The splinter in his heart created a partial blockage which caused him to crash twice on the operating table."

"What does that mean?" Alexis interjected.

"It means he went into cardiac arrest. We were able to reanimate him both times so permanent damage is highly unlikely. But this, plus the other physical injuries combined with the psychological trauma of being shot caused him to fall into a coma during surgery. That was the bad news.

"The coma was unexpected but we have high hopes of him waking up soon. We repaired the gash in his lung and heart and reattached his triceps to the bone. Once he is awake, he will have an extended period of rehabilitation before him. In the first few weeks, he will need constant supervision. If he does the wrong things, his future motor control will suffer. I'll prepare a list. Who'll be the caretaker?"

"Me. I'll care for him." Kate responded immediately, earning her a surprised look from everyone in the room, especially Alexis, who stared up at her wide eyed. She looked down at her and smiled. "Together with his mother and daughter of course."

"Very well. I'll hand the list to you, once it is done. We have brought Mr. Castle into the surgical ICU. Visits are allowed but no more than two people at once. You can touch him on his left side, but no hugging or any other kinds of pressure to his chest area and right side. And now you'll have to excuse me." With that the doctor turned around to walk away.

"Doctor?" Esposito started. "What unit did you serve in?"

"2nd Infantry Division, field surgeon. How did you know?"

"Your candor and lack of sugarcoating. Very military."

The doctor just smiled and walked away.

* * *

"Come on, honey, lets go check on your dad." Kate said to Alexis, who was still clinging to her. Kate knew that she was overusing the terms of endearment like sweetie or honey but right now she simply didn't care. And as much as Alexis was holding on to her, she herself clung to Alexis as if she was the lifeline to Rick. She held on to one Castle because the other was off limits.

They were followed by Martha, Ryan and Esposito as they were walking slowly towards the ICU ward.

Something clicked inside her brain about her feelings towards the Castles when, a second before entering Rick's room, she saw Josh walking in her direction, smiling and waving towards her, and she felt nothing. She didn't smile back or even acknowledged his greeting.

"Try to keep him out of here please." she said to Ryan and Esposito, pointing towards Josh. "I can't deal with him right now."

"We'll try. But he's a doctor, he can march right in there, can't he?" Esposito asked while Kate and Alexis entered the room.

"Unless it's a medical emergency, he can't force you to let him in if his family doesn't want him there as he is not the treating doctor. I'm his mother, and I don't want him in there." Martha said, before entering the ICU room, blatantly breaking the two-people-only rule the head surgeon put in place. But she didn't care.

After she closed the door and turned towards the others, she was greeted by a heartbreaking sight. Kate was sitting on Richards right side, holding his hand and drawing small circles on its back with her thumb. Alexis was on clinging to her fathers right arm, her face close to his head, whispering into his hear. She was still crying.

"Oh Richard." Martha whispered and went to Alexis' side, taking hold of his left hand, holding it tight. She looked over to Kate and saw tears rolling out of her eyes.

* * *

Kate was in her own personal hell. She lost her Captain and almost her partner and best friend in one day. A friend who took a bullet for her without hesitation. '_More than a friend.'_ she thought. _'Friends help with moving furniture or picking up your dry cleaners. They don't jump in front of you to catch a bullet meant for you.'_

Seeing Rick in his hospital bed, with his mother and daughter at his side, she again saw the man she always wanted to come out more often. He wasn't Rick Castle, the playboy millionaire, chasing skirts around town, a new girl in the arms every night, as the tabloids wanted you to believe.

She got to know the real Rick Castle during the last three years. His faults, his more serious sides. When he confronted her about her mothers case earlier today and talked about their recent history, she'd never seen him so angry before. _'We kiss and we never talk about it. We nearly die frozen in each others arms and we never talk about it.' _The way he said that made her shiver. And he was Richard Castle, devoted father, loving son, friend and... more.

She wanted more. She had a boyfriend. _'More an acquaintance with benefits.' _she thought ruefully. But a boyfriend who was rarely there for her. She wanted the comfort of a family to come home to. When she told Rick that she wanted someone who was always there for her, she meant him. She actually meant him. And she realized it too late.

Looking at Alexis and Martha, she couldn't hold it in anymore. Before more than a few tears rolled down her face, she stood up abruptly.

"I need to go to... " _'Where?' _Where could she go.

"I understand, darling." Martha said, seeing her internal conflict. "Go."

As if shoved by the word, Kate bolted out of the room, past a surprised Ryan and Esposito who knew her well enough not to follow her when she had a posture like this. She ran down the hall, blindly took a right turn and ended up in an open air area in the middle of the hospital. An area with small trees and a small stream in the middle. A tiny waterfall on the upper left corner was the starting point of the water, before snaking to the lower left side, where it disappeared underground to be pumped back to its beginning. The whole area was surrounded by a pebbled track with two benches on each side. A place perfect to sit down and relax.

Luckily for Kate, it was empty. She strode into the open, slammed the door shut behind her, circled the area twice. Looking at the small waterfall it was the perfect representation of her. Her tears started falling in earnest and this time she didn't hold back. The last three years flashed in front of her eyes.

Her meeting Castle the first time when she took him in for questioning.

His smirk after the bulldozed himself to her side to shadow her.

How he saved her life from the Nigerian shooter.

How she saved him from being killed by a russian gangster.

The look on his face when she showed up in the beautiful dress he got for her to go undercover at the fundraiser.

How he saved her life from the crazy bomber who thought she was Nikki Heat.

How he always takes care of his daughter, dropping everything when she needs his help.

How he had kissed her to distract the guard.

How passionately she had kissed him back, never wanting to stop.

How he took down a trained assassin before he could shoot her, beating him unconscious.

How he is able to make her smile, even when she is at her lowest.

How he carried her out of the hangar. Where Montgomery died.

That last thought was too much. Kate collapsed on her knees and cried openly. She lifted her head up and opened her mouth.

* * *

Older patients with open windows facing the open area swore to their nurses that they heard the wailing of a banshee, coming to get them.

Doctors looked up from their paperwork at the sound.

Nurses and several patients started crying upon hearing it.

Alexis and Martha jumped up in shock when they heard a blood curdling scream of purest desperation and sorrow. Looking out the windows, they saw Kate kneeling on the ground, her head on her chest, shoulders shaking and hands covering her face.

Alexis immediately ran towards the door.

"What was that sound?" Esposito asked her when she exited the room

"Where did Kate go?" she asked the guys, not acknowledging his question.

"Down there and then right, why?" Ryan said, pointing a finger at the hallway.

Without giving them a second glance, Alexis ran off.

"I feel left out." Ryan mused to himself, Esposito nodding his head at the statement.

* * *

Kate didn't know how long she was on the ground when she heard the doors open and running footsteps coming closer. Before she could lift her head up, two arms enveloped her and a little redhead was hugging her tightly, crying with her.

"I'm sorry, Alexis, so sorry." she said between sobs. "If I had listened to your father, he wouldn't be in that hospital bed. He wanted me to walk away from the case and I wanted to solve it. And look where it's gotten him."

She felt a terrible sting in her heart when she said that. She's shocked and a little surprised when Alexis smacks her on the head.

"Detective Beckett... Kate, please. Yes, I think that you have some fault in this. But I understand why did that. He loves you. More than he ever loved my mum or his second wife. I realized that during the time you lived with us after you apartment was destroyed by the look on his face when you entered our home like you belong there.

And as much as I hate to admit it right now, you've been more a mother to me than my actual mother. You cooked for us, something she never did. And you let me talk to you about things that I can't discuss with my dad. Please, come back with me. He needs you, He needs to hear your voice. I want him to hear your voice."

Before Alexis could say more, she broke down in tears again. Kate took her into her arms, hugging her tightly. Another spike of pain went through her chest. She loved the little girl who was in her arms. She loved her grandmother, the vibrant actress who always had a quip on her lips that made her laugh.

And she loved Rick. How could she have fought against it for so long. Every time he was about to leave for good, she knew it in her heart that she couldn't let him go away. She needed him, needed to touch him. She stood up, took Alexis and went back.

* * *

Two days later, she was still at his side. He had been moved from the surgical ICU to regular ICU. She held his hand and only let go, when nature's call was too strong to resist. Alexis and Martha were there too regularly, as were Ryan, Esposito and Lanie. Other detectives and uniforms also showed up. Kate only noticed them peripherally but was touched by the fact that so many people cared.

She was sitting in her usual spot, his right hand between hers, looking at his face. Alexis was sitting on the other side, her arms around his left side, her head on his right shoulder. She heard another person enter, not bothering to look.

Suddenly there was a hand on her shoulder, not in a caring and soothing way but pressing fingers that demanded attention.

"Josh, what are you doing here?" she said after turning her head.

"I want to take you home. You haven't left here since he got you and since I'm going to the amazon in two days I want to at least spent one night with you. It's rare enough that we see each other."

"You're right. We never see each other. But I'm not leaving. He needs me. I need him. He's here because of me."

On the other side, Alexis' head came up, ready for another intervention. Kate shook her head at her slightly.

"Josh, please leave. I don't want to deal with you right now." she said, turning her gaze back towards Rick's unconscious face, experiencing another spike in the heart.

"Don't deal with me right now?!" Josh practically screamed, waving his arms around. "Do you think it's nice to hear you giggle and moan his name when you sleep? And now you are sitting here constantly as if somehow he isn't responsible for the situation he put himself in. He got shot, Kate! While next to you. The shooter could have hit you."

As Josh yelled on, his hands formed into fists. A flailing right arm hit Rick in the chest. Any retort building inside Kate to yell back at him died in her, when suddenly his EKG starting beeping faster before flatlining completely.

* * *

Kate didn't notice Alexis' scream. She didn't notice Josh backing away panicked. She didn't notice nurses and Doctor Matthews running into the room, readying and charging the defibrillator, ripping Rick's hospital gown off. Amidst shouts of _'Charging!' _and _'Blood pressure high but stable!'_ her hands clung to his face.

Into the haze of tears and fear, one sentence came through. Blood pressure stable? How can the blood pressure be stable when the heart stopped beating. Her fingers went to Ricks throat to check his pulse point.

"He has a pulse!" she screamed at the doctor.

Everything stopped in the room. Doctor Matthews pulled her away, checking the pulse point himself and laying his head in Rick's chest.

"She's right, he has a pulse. But why..." his sentence trailed off when he checked the still flatline EKG. His gaze wandered along the cables, noticing the sensor.

"What happened here? Who moved the sensor away?" he asked, looking around the room.

"He punched my dad in the chest!" Alexis screamed, pointing a finger at Josh, who stood in the corner with a panicked look on his face.

"It's true, he did." Kate said, her eyes throwing daggers at her _'Ex'_ boyfriend.

"I... It was an accident, I didn't..." Josh stammered.

"Doctor Davidson." Doctor Matthews' voice was filled with scorn. "I suggest you leave this room right now. And never step back in here unless there is a medical emergency. We will talk about this later. Now GO!"

Josh ran out of the room, almost colliding with Ryan and Esposito who were coming down the hall with coffees in there hands.

"What happened here?" Ryan asked after the nurses and doctor filed out of the room, after reattaching the EKG sensor to Rick's chest.

"Her boyfriend hit my dad in the chest." Alexis said teary eyes.

"Ex-boyfriend." Kate said quietly.

"He what?" Esposito sputtered. "I'm gonna kill the guy."

"Don't bother, he's not worth it. He'll be out of the country in two days and is forbidden to enter here. If he comes in for anything else than a medical emergency, you have permission to prevent that."

"How is he?" Ryan asked, pointing towards Rick.

"Not awake yet. But at least the punch didn't cause more than elevated blood pressure and heart rate. We thought he died, because Josh's punch moved the EKG sensor and it flatlined. " Kate said, her eyes again tearing up.

"That's good news at least. We'd love to stay but our lunch break is almost over. We'll be back in the evening."

Both men left. Kate noticed Alexis looking at her.

"What?"

"He was right in one thing, you know."

"Who?"

"Dr. motorcycle boy."

Another spike of pain went through her chest.

"What was he right about?"

"You should go home."

"What? No, I have to stay here."

"Kate, I understand perfectly. I see it in your eyes every time you look at him. But Kate... you smell."

Kate couldn't help but laugh at Alexis' statement. Lifting her shirt up, she took a drag and wrinkled her nose at the smell coming from her skin and clothes. Her laugh stopped when pain wracked her chest again. What was happening to her?

"You're right sweetie. I will go, later. But I want to stay here for a little while longer, okay?"

"Okay Kate. I will go grab us something to eat."

With that, Alexis left the room, leaving her alone with Rick. Looking at him, more pain stabbed her in the heart. _'Is that what love feels like?' _she thought to herself. Suddenly she felt her hand being squeezed.

"Kate please, Stay with me, Kate." she heard Rick's voice say. She looked up into his blue eyes, his face full of terror.

_If only he had been quicker_

She wanted to answer him, telling him she wasn't going anywhere. But no words came out of her mouth as more pain wracked through her body and tears rolled out of her eyes. Suddenly she felt very weak.

_If only he had been faster_

"Don't leave me, please. Stay with me, okay?"

Ricks words reverberated in her head, his voice so full of despair, it sent another spasm of pain through her. She didn't notice that light fading around her, the darkness closing in like a shrinking bubble.

_If only he could have protected her_

"Kate, I love you. I love you, Kate."

She wanted to say it back to him, yelling at the world that she loved Richard Castle. But no words came out of her as the darkness enveloped her, suffocating her. The pain in her chest became unbearable.

_If only she listened to him_

Flashes of light rushed by her face in the darkness, to fast to see. Sometimes his face was before her, sometimes others.

_If only she hadn't wasted all this time._

Kate didn't see anything else when she was rolled into emergency surgery, a bullet in her heart and her friends stopped in the hallway.

_If only..._

* * *

**A/N: Okay, here is another piece. I hope you enjoyed it. Please be kind your reviews :) And whoever finds grammatical errors, keep in mind that I'm german so english is not my native tongue. Please review :)**

**A/N: I had this chapter finished actually before I posted the first one, only had to do some polishing. But fate intervened in form a gang of adolescent drunks who decided they wanted my money as I walked by them. I disagreed of course and after a short scuffle I ended up with a knife in my shoulder.**

**Not to worry, the wound is clean and bound and should heal with no problems but a new chapter could take a while since I'm not used to typing with one hand and the painkillers make me a little woozy. **

**Also: feel free to post you own suggestions in reviews, if you have a moment you wanted to go different in the show. If you like my writing, I'll do my best to bring your fantasy to paper :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: The usual, not owning anything.**

**A/N: You might notice, this one's different than before.**

**A glimpse of the future.**

* * *

Kate stood there, looking outside the window at the waves crashing on the private beach of theirs here at the Hamptons. She always knew this day would come, yet tears still fell from her eyes. She didn't bother to wipe them away.

She turned around and saw their family wall. On their tenth anniversary, he put it together, giving her the best present she could have imagined. It was a number of pictures arrayed to resemble a family tree. On top was a picture of the two of them, his arm around her shoulder, her arm around his waist, her head against his shoulder, both with big smiles on their faces.

Slightly down and to the right was a picture of Alexis, showing her status as daughter of Rick but not of Kate.

Slightly lower were the pictures of each of their children. On the left, their first daughter Elizabeth. Then came the twins, Jacob and Jamie. On the right, their second daughter, Johanna.

After Alexis graduated medical school as a certified surgeon, Rick had started to add little plaques with the achievements of the kids in small letters on the bottom of the pictures. Kate walked closer to the pictures to read them.

_Dr. Alexis Castle. Surgeon. Medical Examiner of the 12th precinct. Chief Medical Examiner of New York City._

She could have gone higher when she was offered the job of head of the New York health department but she declined, instead continuing the job she loved doing. Her memories wandered back in time.

_She stood next to Rick, her hand in his as the dean of the university delivered his speech, praising all the students. But she and Rick only had eyes for one redhead with steel blue eyes, grinning madly at them from where she was standing. She was graduating a year early, her ongoing internship as medical examiner under Lanie paying off tremendously. _

"_And now it is my honor to present to you, top of her class, honor student every year, head of the student council. Alexis Castle."_

_The room erupted in thunderous applause and cheers, she and Rick the loudest and proudest among them. Because of her name, Alexis was a known figure, as was his father and by extension, Kate. Numerous heads turned to them, appreciative eyes on them, the closest offering handshakes and small hugs._

_The rest of the ceremony went in a blur. At the end, the three of them were standing in the adjoining hallway talking among each other when their friends showed up._

"_Hey little chica." Javier Esposito said with a beaming smile on his face. He came in hand in hand with Lanie, the wedding bands on their fingers proving what everyone knew for years. Behind them were Kevin and Jenny, also smiling proudly at their 'sister', hugging her and their proud parents._

"_Dad" Alexis started after the congratulations were over. "Two weeks ago I made a decision. I'm going to work for the medical examiners office here in New York." She turned to Lanie. "We're gonna be colleagues."_

"_Sweetie, that's great!" Lanie squealed, enveloping Alexis in a crushing hug. The gang departed and went to dinner, excited voices filling the air as plans for future work were made, while Kate had her hand protectively on her stomach, smiling to herself and to Rick. Tonight was the night for more than one announcement._

The look of joy on the faces of the others when she and Rick announced her pregnancy. Seven months later, little Elizabeth was born. What she and Rick never told anyone was that her conception had been more of an accident. An old condom in Rick's desk drawer and the best sex they ever had. But neither regretted it.

_She rode out yet another high after bouncing up and down on his lap on his office couch. The night had turned from playful kisses to a steaming make-out session in minutes. Clothes had fallen everywhere as they made their way to the bedroom. When his shorts fell in his office, she couldn't wait any longer and jumped him right there, dropping him on the couch and never letting go._

_Seeing a wicked smile on his face, she was lifted from him, earning him an annoyed moan at the loss of body contact. 'I always wanted to do this.' he said, swiping his arm across his desk, scattering the objects on the floor, wincing as his laptop flew off as well but huffing relieved when it landed on the couch. Rick grabbed her, bending her over the table and pushing inside her again._

_After a few strokes that were accompanied by moans and groans, both heard a popping sound. 'What was that?' he asked. 'No idea.' was her breathless answer. 'Do you feel any pain?' he asked again, concerned. 'No. And now shut up and continue.'_

_He didn't need any more incentive. Her insides felt even more amazing than usual, her walls tight around him. It wasn't long until she cried out his name again. She also felt him more than usual. He was pumping furiously and as yet another orgasm ripped through her body, she felt him being so close to the edge but he kept pounding away. Her orgasms started to arrive one after the other, which at one point made her squeal. And Kate Beckett does a lot of things, but she never squealed._

_Her legs felt like jelly, there was nothing left in her head than pure pleasure as she finally felt him come. He groaned like a polar bear, with relief mixed with his groans of pleasure. They stayed in their position for a few minutes, enjoying the touch of each other while their respective primary erogenous zones still twitched occasionally._

_After they separated from each other, their gaze fell on his bare member and the little piece of rubber that was wrapped around the base like a ring. No wonder he held out so long. 'Oh no." both said in unison, looking at each other._

Kate smiled at the memory. Her gaze wandered to the picture of her oldest child. She had her fathers eyes and her hair.

_Elizabeth Castle. Homicide detective. Captain of the 19th precinct. Chief of detectives in New York City._

Kate's mind wandered back to the day her daughter made her decision to wander in her mothers footsteps.

_It was a beautiful day. Two days ago, Elizabeth had graduated college and everyone was sure she would follow her dream of becoming an investigative journalist. As Rick stood in front of the grill, flipping burgers and steaks, Elizabeth stood up, the eyes of her siblings and parents and friends on her._

"_As you all know, I wanted to become an investigative journalist. But, circumstances made me reconsider my options."_

_Circumstances. Rick smiled at that choice of words. Her 'circumstances' was a 23-year old young man sitting next to her, smiling broadly at his daughter. Liam was a great kid. Every time her daughter brought a boy home, they were great kids. The fact that Elizabeth's mother was a police officer and her non-related uncles were as well and her non-related aunt was a medical examiner who could make everything look like an accident helped to weed out the boys who were everything but serious about his little girl._

"_Therefore I decided to use my talents in a different way. I want to help the city by doing what mom does. I want to become a detective."_

_For a short while nobody said anything until Kate jumped up in delight and hugged her daughter. After Rick joined them the decision was confirmed. And so it happened._

Kate sighed at the memory. The plaque under her picture told her story. Second youngest detective in New York history, after her mother. Her education as investigative journalist helped her tremendously and combined with her fathers imagination, she solved cases that other detectives would have given up on way sooner.

Youngest captain in history. Chief of detectives. Doing what no other CoD did before her, she used her fame and her ability to go on speaking tours across schools and managed to discover talent for the police force. The Rooks, as they were called, always became successful detectives in their own right.

* * *

Ah, the twins. Kate always wanted a boy so she was overjoyed when Rick brought up the possibility of another kid. It took them only one try to get her pregnant again. They were very happy when they learned that she was pregnant with twins and even more so, when they learned the gender.

Two boys. Very un-Kate like she doted on them worse than Rick did. But he was the happier one when both boys decided to follow their father and become authors. Their talent for words became apparent in middle school when both wrote essays worthy of publishing.

Following their parent's wishes, both boys went to college and graduated, Jamie in modern literature and Jacob in ancient and medieval history.

Their first success as novelists came in form of the stories for the Derrick Storm graphic novels. They also helped Rick with some of the later Nikki Heat books. Kate remembered the three of them standing around his fake murder board, outlining storylines and putting together gripping dialog. Both had a flair for crime novels but both decided to go into a different direction.

After that they began working on their own book series. Using Jacobs expertise in history they co-authored a book series called Stronghold, with modern dialog in a medieval setting, winning several awards for their accuracy while being entertaining enough to attract a broad audience. Some of their books were so successful in fact, that schools use them as textbooks in history class.

And both decided to give back and started to teach at universities before eventually coming back to New York and teaching at NYU. She read the plaques under their pictures.

_Dr. Jacob Castle. Professor for modern literature at NYU. Best-selling author._

_Dr. Jamie Castle. Professor for ancient history. Best-selling author._

She was so proud of her sons. Her eyes went to the picture of her fourth child. Her second daughter. She came almost as an afterthought, when the boys were ten and Elizabeth was twelve. Her conception was also kind of an accident. She had to chance the prescription of her pill and during one passionate night, some of Rick's swimmers got through the hormonal wall.

They were still thrilled and more than happy. Little Johanna Castle. Her choice of profession brought the most tears to her eyes.

"_Mom, Dad, I want to honor grandma's legacy." she started one day, making Kate and Rick believe she wanted to become a stage actress. "I want to become a lawyer." That statement brought tears to Kate's eyes and she hugged her daughter so tight, she never wanted to let her go. She made her so proud, when she graduated and became a lawyer for the little people, fighting for justice against large corporations. Her success didn't stay unnoticed for long and soon she had silent benefactors that facilitated her rise in the environment of the law._

Kate again read the plaque below the picture.

_Johanna Castle. Head of the Harvard Law Review.. Honorary Doctor of Law – Harvard University. Lawyer. District Attorney for New York City._

The last entry made Kate smile. After Johanna became district attorney, the city media made her family locally famous. They even achieved minor national fame for what they did. The Castles. The crime fighting family.

Alexis would examine the body. Elizabeth would find the perpetrator. Johanna would convict him. And the boys wrote the story about it.

* * *

Kate looked at the plaques again. They didn't tell the personal success of the kids. Each had found loving spouses and gave her and Rick a combined total of 11 grandchildren and so far 6 great-grandchildren. Their pictures were below her kids.

On the right edge of the wall were the pictures of the rest of the family. Top right was the picture of Jim Beckett. With a sigh, she remembered when he met with her.

"_Hey Katie." he greeted her. "Daddy." she answered, happy to see him._

"_Katie, I have something important to tell you." he began, his tone of voice serious._

"_What is it, dad?"_

"_I went to my doctor last week" he began sighing. "I was diagnosed with cirrhosis or the liver, due to my past alcoholism."_

_Kate felt like she had been punched in the gut. "What does that mean?" she asked, knowing the answer but nevertheless not wanting to hear it._

"_It means I will die in the near future. The only thing to do would be a replacement but I asked the doctor to take my name off the list."_

"_WHAT? WHY?"_

"_Because I don't deserve it. It's my own fault that I am in this situation. Also, I will be reunited with you mother again. I told you this so you wouldn't be mad at me and especially because Rick would move heaven and earth to help me."_

_The rest of the conversation was filled with tears, regrets and happy memories. It took her a while but Kate came to accept his decision._

_It made her happy that her father managed to be there when little Johanna was born._

_One week later, he was dead._

* * *

With a sigh, she looked at the picture of Martha. Her life ended the way she wanted it. On stage in front of an audience. On her 80th birthday, she made a solo show on Broadway. In front of a sold out audience she delivered a dramatic performance before collapsing close to the end. The audience, thinking it a part of the show, gave her a standing ovation before lapsing into uncomfortable silence when EMTs rushed to the stage and pronounced her dead of a heart attack.

* * *

She continued looking at her extended family. Kevin and Jenny, Lanie and Javier.

Kevin and Jenny died in a car crash twenty years ago. They had three kids together.

Javier had died from complications after an operation. He left his wife and two kids. Lanie died four years later of old age.

Her eyes went to the right side where a very small picture of Meredith was hung above Alexis' picture. The only reason it was there was for the fact that she was Alexis' birth mother. Kate had to suppress a laugh when she thought of the last time they saw Meredith.

_Kate was sitting on the couch, softly stroking her developing baby bump. Rick and the boys had finished the transfer of her things to his loft and the moving of Martha's things to her old apartment a few hours before. After inviting the guys for a late lunch and drinks at the Old Haunt, he came back and headed straight to the showers._

_When he came out with a towel around his waist and droplets of water still falling from his hair, she involuntarily licked her lips. He moved towards the kitchen area and she was about to stand up to go to him when they heard the front door open. Since Alexis and Martha were expected to come over, neither of them paid it much attention. Her view was obstructed by the partition and Rick's back was to the door._

"_Hello Kitten." came an unexpected and dreaded voice from the visitor._

_As Rick turned around with a shocked look on his face, Meredith closed the distance and kissed him hard on the lips. Rick had to fight for several seconds to get her off._

"_Meredith, what are you doing here?"_

"_You know, I was in the city and I thought I'd stop by. My bags are out side. Be a doll and get them inside for me, will you? I'll prepare myself and meet you in the bedroom."_

_If the situation wasn't so creepy, Kate would have laughed at the look on Rick's face. Instead Kate just harrumphed to get her attention. When Meredith turned around and saw Kate's baby bump visible under her shirt, her eyes went wide although she recovered quickly._

"_You're still here? I thought that dalliance was over already."_

_Kate had expected her to say something insulting but that took the cake, insinuating that her and Rick's relationship was only a fling. And it might have been the fact that a lot of pregnancy hormones were cursing through her body but instead of saying something she just walked over and slapped Meredith hard in the face._

_The kitchen counter was the only thing preventing Meredith from falling down. Not giving her a moment of respite, Kate grabbed her and half pushed, half dragged her towards the door._

"_Hid Dad, hi Ka... Mom?" Alexis' shocked voice cut through the curtain of Kate's anger. It made quite a picture. Her birth mother with her hands behind her back and her mother in everything else holding her birth mother tight with a furious look on her face. And her dad, standing behind the kitchen counter with a grin on his face and a recording phone in his hand._

"_She was just leaving." Kate said in a deadpan voice before pushing her out into the hallway._

"_Alexis, darling. "Meredith started. "Why don't you come and help me with my bags while I call a cab. We go shopping and to dinner."_

"_I'm sorry mom, I already have plans." Alexis answered, pointing to Rick and Kate._

_Martha, who had come in with Alexis just stood on the side, smirking constantly but keeping her mouth shut._

"_But, I'm your mother. And we see each other so rarely."_

"_And who's fault is that? You could have called and asked me instead of barging in and just assume I drop everything to go with you. And you're only my mother in one regard. The rest of that position has been filled nicely by someone else."_

"_But I'm leaving again tomorrow."_

"_That's not my problem. It was nice seeing you mom." Alexis said, giving her a quick hug and closing the loft door._

"_Well, remind me to change the locks tomorrow." Rick said, before bursting out in loud laughter._

"_Do you find this funny?" Kate asked him, still ice in her voice._

"_Yes." he said without hesitation. "But the way you handled her and threw her out. So hot!"_

_Kate just rolled her eyes and smiled. Give it to Rick to deflate a serious situation with a joke. She hugged Alexis and Martha and helped Rick with dinner._

Looking back at the situation and what happened later, she felt a pang of regret. Two days after Meredith's unexpected arrival, she committed suicide.

It was revealed later that her acting career was in the toilet and after Alexis graduated, Rick hat stopped the alimony payments to her, leaving her broke after her own reserves went out. Rick paid for a grand funeral, the way Meredith would have liked it, and everyone agreed to forget the situation that led to it.

* * *

Kate's thoughts of Meredith left her when she turned around to the other wall. On it were memorabilia of their past. Her badge, her commendations, his awards for his books, his book awards for the Nikki Heat Series.

His Nikki Heat series. During their time together it grew to 25 books. He planned to stop after seven books and wrote the ending where Nikki and Rook went into a building before it exploded. 'Did they die?' she had asked him. 'Maybe.' he had answered with a smile. It was a way to resurrect them at a later time or keep them dead.

They weren't dead long. After the seventh book sold fifty million copies, his publisher more or less demanded more books. They offered him more money than ever before but Rick wanted to spend his time raising his kids. But after receiving more than million fan letters with a lot of them begging him to continue the series, he caved in. The eighth book of the series, called Reignited Heat, showing the smoldering silhouettes of Nikki and Rook exiting a burning building, sold more than sixty million copies, making it one of the most successful novels of all time. It also marked the point where Rook became an equal partner and his silhouette never left the covers again.

True to the words of the director of the first movie, when he kept writing them, they kept making them. Each book was made into a movie, bringing Natalie Rhodes and her male counterpart, Neil Andrews, to stardom. In a strange way of life imitating art imitating life Natalie and Neil become lovers during the fourth movie and married after the fifth. From then on, the movies received critical acclaim for the portrayal of the main characters, their chemistry making them a pleasure to watch. Also, every time both Natalie and Neil won an award for their roles, they mentioned Rick for making it all possible.

* * *

Kate was still in her thoughts, when she heard Alexis coming out of their master bedroom.

"Mom?" she said, trying to get her attention. After the Meredith incident, Alexis had started to call Kate mom, which warmed her heart every time she did it.

"Yes, honey?"

"It's confirmed. Dad has passed away in his sleep. His heart stopped beating during the morning."

Kate sighed and let the tears fall. It wasn't so much of a shock. They were old. But even with the knowledge that he was a decade older than her and that every life ends at some point, she never could imagine her days without her Rick at her side. Their daily walks on the beach. Their evenings in front of the TV, their talks.

"Can I have a minute with him alone?" she asked Alexis.

"Sure mom, I will tell the others and call the hearse."

Kate went into the master bedroom and sat beside her dead husband. Rick Castle, loving husband, devoted father, best-selling author, lover, best friend, partner, colleague. Those are the attributes Kate described him to everyone who ever asked. She let the tears run free as she linked her fingers to him, their wedding bands touching and lay her head on his chest. Until last night, his heartbeat was a soothing constant in her life whenever they lay together.

She closed her eyes, filling her mind with memories of their long life together. How was she to live a day without him? How could she wake up in the morning without him by her side. She always scoffed when people said love is eternal. Until she met Rick and fell in love with him.

Her head was still in his chest and her hands still intertwined with his when Alexis and her other kids came back into the bedroom to say their goodbyes to him. After trying to shake her awake numerous times, Alexis checked her pulse to find none.

The paramedics arriving shortly after the hearse and pronounced her dead of cardiac arrest. To her kids, Kate died of broken heart.

* * *

It was a beautiful day in New York. The sun was shining but it wasn't unpleasantly warm. The entire family, Alexis with her husband and three kids and four grandchildren, Elizabeth with her husband and two kids and two grandchildren, Jacob and Jamie with their wives and kids and Johanna with her long lasting partner and two kids. Nobody else was allowed before the ceremony ended. Every single police officer on or off duty volunteered for security detail to keep the people out. The cemetery was ringed with uniforms and detectives, everybody holding their hats in one hand and a blue orchid in the other.

The large marble headstone read

Richard Edgar Castle, loving husband, devoted father, best friend, partner, colleague. April 1st 1969 – September 10th 2062

Katherine Houghton Castle, loving wife, devoted mother, best friend, partner, colleague. November 17th 1979 – September 10th 2062

Together in life and in death.

Love is eternal.

Always.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this took so long. Not long after arriving at home my computer chair broke down. Before I hit the floor, my injured shoulder managed to land on the edge of my trash bin which caused the stitches to rip open again and additionally it tore my triceps tendon in the shoulder. So now it's summer and I'm confined to my room in a shoulder cast and it is VERY hard to write one handed -.-**

**A/N: As you might have noticed, this wasn't an If Only story like the other two chapters. But this has run around in my brain for several nights now, just before I fall asleep, my imagination runs wild and show me ways I'd like the story ultimately end someday. It's just hard to get it actually written when you wake up the next day with painkillers flooding your system ^^**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello readers. This one came to me yesterday morning, when I watched the pilot again. I thought about a different beginning, Castle not the jackass, Kate not so irritated by him. What could have happened ^^ Some dialog is verbatim from the pilot, others is changed.  
**

**Disclaimer: I own Castle... no wait, that was a dream. Dammit.**

* * *

**Different start**

She was meeting her favorite author. Again. Would he remember her? Probably not. The first time was a book signing, where she waited two hours in the freezing cold with hundreds of others before getting ten seconds with him as he signed her book. Granted, the sentence he wrote was surprisingly deep and personal but he probably wrote stuff like this into every book he signs.

He was standing at the bar, drinking champagne and talking to a redheaded girl who looked way too young to be here, an untouched champagne glass in front of her. Who the hell was she? She couldn't be his girlfriend, she was too young. A fan? Then she'd be the luckiest of them all, getting alone time with him, with a real conversation. She had a gorgeous smile and it wasn't a I'm-meeting-my-idol kind of smile.

A daughter? His website never stated he had one. But then again, it never said anything about a family at all. But as unwilling as she was to break up that moment between the two, she had a job to do. Taking a deep breath, she stepped in behind him.

"Mr. Castle?" As he turned around to her, he took his pen out of his jacket, surely thinking she was just another fan. Which she actually was though he didn't need to know that.

"Where do you want it?" came his reply. '_On my chest please. And in every book of you I own. Stop it Kate, do your job.' _Flashing her badge, his face went from placating smile to confusion.

"Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD, we need to ask you a few questions about a murder that took place earlier tonight."

She couldn't be sure but his eyes seemed to widen in the expected surprise but also something else as the words left her mouth. The girl behind him leaned over his left shoulder, taking the pen out of his hand.

"That's new." she said, a smile in her eyes. Definitely a daughter. Who else would be allowed to do that with him. '_A playboy with a daughter? That ought to be interesting.' _She led him to her crown vic and took him to the precinct.

* * *

Case files in hand, she made her way to the interrogation room. She'll be alone with her favorite author. _'Dammit, get a grip woman. He's here for questioning. Maybe he even committed the crime. But what reason should he have? He has money, and a family it seems. Hmmm, a family with Richard Castle. I wonder what kind of father he is. Or how he is in bed... Stop it girl.'_

Mentally slapping herself, she opened the door to the interrogation room and came face to face with him. Expecting a lot of different things to come out of his mouth, the two words that actually left it were definitely a surprise, especially combined with the sincere face.

"Thank you."

_'Huh. I did not expect that. He must be the first one grateful to be taken here.'_

"For what?" she asked him, dumbfounded at this strange remark.

"For getting me out of that party. I wouldn't have been able to leave for another two hours at least of not for you. Although I'd rather have gone home."

_'Okay, this is new. Richard Castle, playboy, would rather be home than at a party. And the smile on his face looks real.'_

"I thought you loved to party. Every weekend, a new and beautiful woman on your arm..." she scoffed at him, not even knowing where the jealousy was coming from. _'Maybe because you want to be the woman on his arm? Yeah right. Being another notch in his bedpost? It must be frayed to the point of collapse already.'_

"A new and beautiful woman...?" he quoted her. "Right. More like 'another dumb bimbo who knows nothing about my work'" he said, using a mockery of her voice and frequent air-quotes. "I don't even know the last names of most of them. My publisher puts these on my arms like cufflinks. It 'enhances your standing as a playboy' they say. There are only one or two women I truly care about with me at those parties."

"And who might that be." she interrupted him, suddenly more interested in the person in front of her, the case files momentarily forgotten. _'Why am I talking to him like this? I should be questioning him.'_

"You saw one of them, my really beautiful redhead daughter who had her head on my shoulder when you talked to me. The other is my mother, you might have seen her trying to land a man."

Kate couldn't hide a smile. '_His face has this look of pride of any parent talking about his little girl. It's kind of cute. Wait, cute? For the love of god, Kate, focus on your job.'_

Shaking her head, she started with the case. She took the photo of the latest victim first.

"Allison Tisdale. Daughter of real estate mogul Jonathan Tisdale."

"She's cute."

"She's dead. Did you ever meet her? Book signing, charity event?"

"It's possible. But when you sign thousands of books at hundreds of signings, you rarely remember the people. I only remember five distinct people at my book signings. Three of them were famous actors. But she's not in my little black book if that's what you're asking." he added with a smirk.

"What about this guy? Marvin Fisk, small claims lawyer." Kate asked, placing the second picture in front of him.

"Most of my claims tend to be on the large side." he said, earning himself an eye-roll from the beautiful detective. "I know. I can be a jackass. It's hard sometimes to switch off the playboy role. Especially in front of a beautiful woman like you."

_'Ah, there is the playboy from the papers.'_

"But, as nice as chatting with you is, even in a sterile environment like this, I must ask. Since you know that I didn't kill these people, I'm assuming the guy is dead as well, you want to ask for my help. So, what has this do to with me?"

_'Interesting'._ She thought. _'He's more acute than I thought.'_

"What if I think you did kill these people?"

"If you'd really thought I killed them, you wouldn't have asked me to come in for questions. I'd have my picture plastered in the newspaper tomorrow with the headlines 'Richard Castle arrested for murder' showing me being escorted out of the building in handcuffs into a squad car."

"You're good. The question for you regards the way we found the victims. This is how we found Alison Tisdale." she said, showing him the crime scene photo. The picture takes him aback.

"Flowers for your grave." he said, recognizing the picture as a scene from one of his books.

"And this is how we found Marvin Fisk. Right out of Hell Hath No Fury."

"Looks like I have a fan." he said, smirking again.

"A very deranged fan."

"Oh, you don't look deranged to me?"

"What?"

"Hell Hath No Fury? Angry wickens out for blood? Come on, only hardcore Castle groupies read that one."

_'Damn, he's really acute' _"Do any of these groupies ever write you letters?" she asked, earning only a nod. "Disturbing letters?"

"Oh, all my fan mail is disturbing, it's an occupational hazard."

"Because, sometimes in cases like this we find that the killer..." she starts, getting interrupted by him.

"...attempts to contact the subject of his obsession." he finishes her sentence.

_'Huh? What the hell was that'_

"I'm also pretty well versed in psychopathic methodologies. Another occupational hazard. And do you know you have gorgeous eyes."

His blatant attempt at flattery snapped her out of her surprise.

"So I take it you won't have any objections to us going through your mail?"

"Knock yourself out."

As she was getting up, he suddenly seemed to remember something.

"I know your eyes."

That made her give him another eye roll. She couldn't wrap her head around the changes in his behavior, first the loving father and then being the playboy the media said he was.

"Give it a rest, Mister Castle."

"'To Kate, even if you are faced with sorrowful times, don't hide your smile from the world_.'"_

That sentence made her drop the case files, looking at him in astonishment. After the death of her mother, she read and fell in love with his books and went to a signing. This was the exact sentence he wrote in the book when he signed it to her.

"What did you say?" she tried to deflect him from the fact that he hit a nerve.

"That was my dedication for you, wasn't it?"

"It... I... I need to go. Thank you for your cooperation. You are free to go." she stammered out, quickly leaving the room which looked to everybody like she was fleeing. She called up some uniforms to pick up the fan mail for the next day and hurried out of the precinct to get home.

* * *

_It was night. Kate's mind was foggy yet she was wide awake. She felt herself standing up and suddenly she was at the right side of her bed, looking down on it. And she saw herself still lying there. What the hell? A cone of light coming from a light source that wasn't even there illuminated her face. She wasn't sleeping. Her face was contorted in pleasure, her lips moving, saying words like 'more' and 'yes'._

'What's going on?' s_he thought. She couldn't hear anything, her only information came from lip reading and her eyes. The cone of light started to expand, illuminating not only her face but starting to light up her chest. Her breath caught in her throat when it got down to her breasts. It wasn't the fact that she was topless. Or that her breasts were firm, she knew that. Or that her nipples were hard as rock._

_There were hands on her breasts! Male hands. With thumb and forefinger, those hands tweaked and swiped her nipples and according to her facial expression, she liked it. The cone of light continued to expand, lighting up her trim waist, the arms connected to the male hands continuing down at her sides, while her own arms were stretched down as well, holding something._

'Oh my god!' _ she thought, as the light finished expanding, illuminating the entire bed. The male arms ended in a male body, with a male head buried between her legs. Her own arms alternated between holding her own legs spread apart as wide as possible and pushing the male head harder against her._

_She saw herself panting and continue to mouth words like 'yes' until she cried out in pleasure and her hips bucked upwards. When the male lifted his head with a grin on his face, Kate gasped. It was Richard Castle. That smug playboy bastard. But while she was outraged at the notion of him seducing her, the Kate on the bed only smiled and pulled him up to her face to plant an open-mouthed kiss on his lips, their tongues battling for dominance all the while Rick placed himself on top of her and entered her slowly. She saw her counterpart gasping out at the contact, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. As much as Kate wanted to, she couldn't turn __around or even close her eyes._

_She saw herself speaking, and reading her own lips, she saw herself telling him to do unspeakable things to her. Rick just smiled and started pumping. After a short while that seemed like hours of seeing her own face twisted in a state of pleasure she didn't remember ever experiencing, Rick grabbed behind him, unhooked her ankles and lifted both her legs. Grabbing her calves, he pushed her legs up and forward until her knees were almost next to her head. This position seemed to work because the Kate on the bed cried out expletives all the while Rick roughly pounded her until she saw herself climaxing violently._

_Despite that she saw herself complaining when Rick pulled out. But not for long. He turned her around, stuck a pillow below her hips, so her behind was lifted higher and entered her again. He started pounding without pause, hammering his hips against hers, hard and rough. She saw her face again contorted in pleasure, her lips shouting a lot of expletives alternating with desperate appeals to a deity._

_She saw herself climaxing when her upper body jerked upwards with a scream on her lips. With lightning reflexes, Rick caught her and pressed his lips on hers and held her up without ever stopping his pounding of her. She barely rode out her orgasm when the angle had her climaxing again, this time taking him with her._

_Both bodies collapsed onto the bed, his face hidden by her head but both panting. Kate looked at her own body, still twitching from the occasional aftershock, breathing hard and her face filled with a post-coital glow and a big smile on her face. Rick lifted himself up and both looked at each other. Kate saw the emotions showing in both their eyes. They said more than simple satisfied lust. Kate panicked when her counterpart opened her mouth and her lips started saying 'I lo...'_

* * *

"Oh my god!" she screamed, jerking awake. It took her a minute until she realized that she was alone in her bed, her sheets tangled and her left hand between her legs. She felt the moisture on her pajama pants and her breathing was ragged, giving credence to the intensity of the dream she just experienced.

She looked at her alarm clock. 5:15 am. It would go off in 30 minutes. She thought of trying to get some more sleep but her pounding heart and the adrenaline flowing through her body made that notion impossible. Instead she got up, started a pot of coffee and headed towards the shower.

As she was standing under the spray of water, she thought back to the fast fading dream and what it represented. Yes, Rick Castle was handsome, he was rich, not that it was important to her, and yes, he wasn't what the media made him to be. But that last part, was her dream counterpart really saying love? No. Not love. She couldn't love Richard Castle. He lived in a completely different world. And she would never see him in person again. Problem solved.

* * *

He was helping with the case! This could not be happening. He contacted the Mayor, who he apparently was on a first name basis with, who called Captain Montgomery who put him on her team for this case. Now he was sitting two feet away, reading through his own fan mail, regularly looking at her over the paper. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Can I ask you a question?" she asks, not waiting for an answer. "Why are you here? You clearly don't care about the body."

"I'm here for the story." he answered, as if that said everything.

"Excuse me?"

"Why those people? Why those murders?"

"Sometimes, there is no story. Sometimes, the guy is just a psychopath. "

"There's always a story, always a chain of events that makes everything make sense." he said, scoffing. "Take you for example. Under normal circumstances, you should not be here. Most smart good looking women become lawyers, not cops. And yet here you are. Why?"

"I don't know, Rick. You're the novelist. You tell me." she tells him, a smirk on her face.

"Well, you're not bridge-and-tunnel. No trace of the boroughs when you talk. So that means Manhattan. That means money. You went to college, probably a pretty good one. You had options. You had a lot of options, more socailly acceptable options. But you still chose this. That tells me, something happened. Not to you. You're wounded, but you're not that wounded. No, it was someone you care about, someone you loved. And you probably could have lived with that but the person responsible was never caught."

During his short speech, Kate's face fell from smirk to sad. '_God, in a few sentences he more or less figured out my history.'_ she thought, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall. Not that he didn't notice her struggle. And she saw him taking a breath, probably to hit her with some smug remark about his ability to read her like an open book.

"And that Detective Beckett, is why you are here." he said, turning back to his letter.

That was a surprise. Not smug remark, no grin in his face. Just a matter-of-fact statement and turning away that was more like a verbal version of squeezing her hand in comfort. But instead of acknowledging him, she fell back in her defensive techniques.

"Cute trick. Don't think you know me." she told him, ending the conversation in her mind.

"The point is there's always a story. You just have to find it." he said, again surprising her with insight, as she finds exactly what he's talking about in the letter she is holding.

* * *

They picked up Kyle. The second victim was his social worker, he was clinically depressed and he was a Richard Castle maniac, knowing everything about him and his books. In Kate's mind, it was an open and shut case. Tomorrow, he'd be transferred from holding to the DA and out of her hand and she could tell the relatives of the victims that her killer was going behind bars.

This night her dreams weren't filled with steamy sex with a certain handsome author. After getting up and showering, she made her way to the precinct, only to find this certain author sitting at her desk, reading through her case files.

"What are you doing?" she asks him, taking the files out of his hands.

"It's a novelists habit, poke through other peoples mail, checking their medicine cabinets."

"Why are you still here?"

"I just came by to give you this. Something to memorialize our brief partnership."

She gave him an eyeroll.

"Don't look so suspicious. Open it."

She took the package and with a sigh opened the lid, probably to find some skimpy piece of clothing only to be surprised when it was his latest book.

"I got you an advanced copy. I even signed it to you, not that you're a fan." he said, with a smile on his face.

"Thank you. That's actially kind of sweet."

"Well, it was nice to have met you, Detective Beckett." he said, leaning in and giving her a somewhat awkward kiss on her cheek before leaving.

When she said down at her desk, thinking about what just happened, she couldn't stop a smile forming. Shaking her head, she prepared to start her paperwork when a thought suddenly hit her.

"He didn't." she said to herself, taking the Tisdale case file, almost ripping it open and finding a lot of stuff missing. "Oh, he did!"

Grasping her jacket, she ran off towards the exit to find and arrest him. Turning around a corner, she almost ran into him as he was standing nonchalantly at a wall, smiling at her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she practically yells at him.

"Getting your attention. Come on, we have a killer to find." she tells her, not the slightest bit intimidated by her outburst, which is kind of surprising to her.

"We already have our killer, Castle. And give me back the files or I will handcuff you to the nearest radiator."

"Uh, kinky. My safe word is apples." he said with a grin on his face. "But seriously, the killer wants you to think you have him, but Kyle was set up to take the fall. Now quit stalling and come on. Get those long and nice legs of yours moving and take me to the public library. We find our evidence there."

"You will give me those case files back and leave before my "long and nice" legs kick your ass."

"I will wait by your car. Meet me there when you punched a wall and calmed down." he said smiling and walked away.

Kate could only stand there, mouth open in surprise at his audacity. Not only did he steal police property, he was smug about it and still walked out of the precinct. And further, his calm demeanor completely dissipated her anger.

_'I will shoot him. Yes, I will shoot him. Maybe in the legs. He needs his hands to write. I will humor him and see what he has, and then I will kiss him. Wait, what? No, I will shoot him. God dammit.'_

Ending her embarrassing train of thought, she took off to the garage and true to his words, he waited next to the passenger door. Twenty minutes later they were walking into the public library.

"Mister Castle." came an elderly voice, as she walked beside him. She turned to see a librarian, at least in her sixties, walking towards Rick and give him an affectionate hug.

"Hello, Marge. Always nice to see you. And I told you, you can call me Rick" he said with an honest smile, hugging her back. Suddenly, Kate wanted to be the one he hugged.

_'Not now Kate.' _she thought and mentally slapped herself.

"Mister Castle, Doctor Brown wanted to personally thank you for your generous donation last month. It was enough to add another wing to the east room."

"It's my pleasure, Marge. I'd do anything for the place I spent a lot of my childhood in."

Kate was surprised. _'Not only is he not a playboy, he is a generous man.'_ Her animosity had a harder and harder time to keep up.

"Marge, it'd be great to chat, but we are here for work."

"Okay Mister Castle, I leave you to it." the librarian said, sitting down at her desk.

"Come on, Kate." he said, walking towards the biology section.

As she followed him, she didn't even realize that he called her by her first name. What she also didn't realize was that her subconscious didn't even mind.

* * *

"See, these are the rose petals found on Alison's body. And these are the ones I used in my book."

"You dragged me to the library to show me pictures of flowers?"

"Well, I could have dragged you to my loft but that might have given you the wrong idea about my intentions. Also, my mother and daughter would probably mind me bringing someone there in the morning, although you would probably be more welcome than any other girl I could bring there."

"Why, I was under the impression you bring girls there on a fairly regular basis." she said, smirking.

"I might not be a celibate but no, I never brought women to my place when either my mother or daughter were there. Especially my daughter. I can't be a good father to her when I more or less whore around. That sends the wrong signals, although she is already way more grown up than me.

"Anyway, in the Tisdale murder the rose pedals came from Grandiflora. In my book, I had the murderer use Hybrid Teas."

"So what?"

"So what? And you call yourself a detective?" She was about to snap back at him but he didn't let her. "Be quiet. Kyle is an obsessive. I think, if you ask him a question about my books, any part of them, he will give you the correct answer."

"Yes, go on."

"How come, an obsessive uses the wrong roses. Or kills his victim the wrong way? Marvin Fisk was strangled with his tie, in my book the victim was suffocated with a plastic bag."

"And in the third murder, the victim had the wrong dress color." Kate finished his train of thought.

"Damn, you might be right."

"Might?"

"Shut up, Ricky."

"Okay Katie. Lets go, we have an appointment."

"An appointment? With whom?"

"Jonathan Tisdale."

"Alison Tisdale's father?"

"Yes."

She watched him walk away and was kind of impressed with him. Not only did he raise doubts about the supposed killer, he also anticipated her next move. When she started following him, another thought hit her.

"Did you just call me Katie?"

"Yes."

"Who gave you permission do to that?"

"You did when you called me Ricky. If you upgrade the terms of endearment, I will use them too." he said smiling and got into her car.

"Listen to me... honey" she said, drawing out the honey to show him she means business. "If you call me Katie again, I will break your arm."

"No problem sweetie." he answered, giving her another of his disarming smile. And as much as she wanted to be angry at him, she couldn't stop herself from smiling at him.

* * *

The ride to Jonathan Tisdale's office building took longer due to the rush hour Manhattan traffic. She couldn't stop herself from looking at Rick time and again and while she was sure he looked at her too when she wasn't, he mostly looked out the windows, contemplating.

"Penny for your thoughts." she said, trying to penetrate the silence.

"I'm thinking about what to write now that the Storm series is done. About the direction it goes, the main character, the supporting cast, the locations. I forgot my notebook, I'm trying to do a mental list."

"Anything concrete?"

"Well, I think the main character should be female this time. Usually my main characters are males, that should change."

"What brought that idea up?"

"You." he stated, matter-of-fact.

"Come again?"

"You're a detective, and a rather successful one I heard, in a male dominated profession. You're smart and beautiful. And you're tall. I like that."

She was speechless. He was really thinking about a character, seemingly based on her. Before she could comment on that, he spoke again.

"We're here."

Parking the car, they went up to meet the father of the victim.

* * *

The meeting was short and rather pointless. She didn't get any new information about possible killers from the victim's father and she turned around to tell Castle this very thing and lecture him about wasting the time of a detective.

"He's dying." he said, before she could get out a word.

"Who's dying? Tisdale?"

Instead of answering her, he started to walk towards the hot dog vendor.

"You want a hotdog? I want a hotdog."

_'Okay, that's enough.' _she thought and grabbed his nose, squeezing it in a very painful way.

"Ouch, apples, apples, apples." he yelped and she let go, leaving him to rub his nose.

"What makes you think, he's dying?"

"You saw those pictures in his office?"

"Yeah"

"He's much thinner now, like sick thin, not workout thin."

"His daughter was just murdered."

"And the way he kept touching his hair, like he's self-conscious?" he continues, ignoring her remark.

"You think it was a piece?"

"It's a good one but it's new to him. The chemo is relatively recent. And he was wearing make-up."

"He tries to look healthier than he is."

"Doesn't want his shareholders to know."

"So he's got cancer, doesn't mean he's terminal."

"But it's a much better story if he is. You interview the brother?"

"There was no reason to."

"Well. now there is."

With that he turned around to get his hotdog. _'Man, he's really observant. I never saw that.'_ Her gaze went to his broad back as he was standing in front of the vendor, her gaze wandering down his body, before she realized what she was doing and averted her gaze.

* * *

The rest of the case went in kind of a blur. They talked to the son, and she realized before him that he was guilty of the murders, even though she had to admit that his second passport theory blew it wide open and probably saved them enough time to get a quick search warrant (again thanks to his connections to the judge) and get to Harrison Tisdale just as he was fleeing with the shredded passport in a bag.

After saving Castles life, which she didn't really do, after he indicated the safety on the murderer's gun, she stood in front of him, the familiar smirk on his face as he looked at her.

"Well, guess this is it." she said. _'Is it strange that I don't really want it to be?'_ she added in her head.

"It doesn't have to be. We could have dinner, debrief each other." he proposed.

_'Yes please'. _"Why Castle, so I can be another one of your conquests?"

"Not really, I'd rather not make a move on you when my mother and daughter are there."

"Wait, you're who are what now?"

"My family will be there too. You know, at my home, when I cook dinner..." he said, the end of the sentence trailing off as he saw the look on her face.

"Why Detective Beckett, if I didn't know better, I think you had really nasty thoughts about a dinner with me in that lovely head of yours."

"Ok Castle, you're on. Give me your address and I will be there."

"Great, we start at 6:30 pm. And I guess, you already have my address." he said, winking at her and moving away to call a cab.

Kate just smiled to herself, wondering why she had agreed.

* * *

It was 6:15 pm. Kate had finished the paperwork, got home for a shower and changed. Just as she was about to knock, the door opened and Martha came out.

"Kate, darling, go right in. Change of plans, I have a date tonight and can't join you for dinner. But you guys have fun. Bye."

Without waiting for a reply from Kate, Martha swooped by and stepped into the elevator. Kate stepped into the loft, marveling at the size of it and the simplistic beauty of the interior design. The kitchen was spacious, with a large counter currently filled with various dinner ingredients, bar stools in front of it. The living room was huge, with a enormous high definition TV with a surround sound system. To the right was a study filled with a desk and lots of books. A stairway indicated a second floor to he place, which made it gigantic. Her entire apartment could fit at least three times in here.

A high pitched scream followed by a loud bang made her turn around. She saw Castle leaning against the oven, his hands over his heart and two pots at his feet.

"Jeez, Kate, you want to give me a heart attack? How did you get in here?"

"Your mother let me in when she left. Seemed she was kind of in a hurry."

"Yeah, she met someone and is on a date. Knowing her, she won't be back until late night or tomorrow."

"So... it's just you and me?" she asked, suddenly apprehensive.

"And Alexis. You know, young, beautiful, smart and my daughter."

"Right. So, the three of us."

"Exactly. That reminds me. PUMPKIN. Come down and help me with dinner." he shouted upstairs.

"In response she heard feet trampling down and soon saw his daughter, fully dressed with jacket and shoes."

"Dad, I need to skip dinner."

"What? Why?" he asked and the look on his face told Kate that he was just as surprised as she was.

"Paige called. She has major boy troubles. I have to go over there to comfort her and talk trash about him."

"But you promised to help me with the Lasagna."

"I'm sure you can do it. Maybe Detective Beckett will help you, so the little mishap from last time doesn't happen again."

"What mishap?" Kate asked, suddenly nosy about a piece of Castle family gossip.

"Hey, that was nothing. My eyebrows had grown back after a month."

"Yes, but I could still smell the stench of burning hair a month after, and we had to replace the oven once again."

Kate couldn't prevent herself from laughing out loud. The easy way in which Rick talked to his daughter made him incredibly sexy. _'Wait, sexy? I meant cute. No, sweet. No... Argh, think unsexy thoughts Kate.'_

"But be so nice dad and put the leftovers in the fridge. I have to go."

"Wait, when will you be back?"

"Tomorrow. We'll have a sleepover."

"But..."

"No buts dad, I earned it after I beat you at laser tag yesterday."

"You cheated."

"I didn't. It's not my fault you get distracted by grams."

Without waiting for a reply, Alexis left the loft.

"What just happened?" Rick asked, looking at Kate.

"I think you just got your ass kicked verbally."

"From a 15-year old. How low have I sunk. Well, I guess it truly is just the two of us."

Kate had to fight a moment of panic. Dinner for two with Richard Castle. In his home. _'That will not end well, I'm sure. Come on Kate, you can do it. If he tries any funny business, arrest him.'_

"So, what's the plan?" she asked him, trying to break the silence that has descended over them.

"Well, I thought of carrying you to my bed, rip your pants off and pound you until you come so often that you can't walk anymore." he stated, in a matter-of-fact fashion.

_'What the...'_ "What did you say?" she half screamed at him.

"I said, I thought of you making the salad, while I prepare the pots and pans for the pasta and meats we'll need for the lasagna. But I warn you, once you ate my lasagna, you might not want to leave anymore." he said smiling.

_' Dear god, how could my brain twist that sentence to the other one. I have to keep my distance. Don't look at him too long Kate. Or you'll jump him right on the kitchen counter.'_

"Sure, hand me the knife and vegetables."

* * *

She had to give it to him. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was great. She laughed a lot at his stories and he laughed at hers. The time went by way too fast for her liking.

"I think we'll have to finish this evening." he said, which made her jump at the abrupt change in topic.

"Why?" she asked, not wanting it to end yet.

"Because it's almost one in the morning and you probably have to go to work today."

"Oh god, I had no idea it was so late. I need to get home."

"You could sleep here. I have a guest room upstairs."

_'Or I could sleep in your big bed next to you. Or on top of you. Ok, that's it. Stop it Kate or I will hammer my head against a wall.'_ she thought.

"Thanks for the offer, but I have no clothes here and I can't go to work in this." she said, pointing at her dress.

"Okay. I understand."

She quickly grabbed her jacket and her shows, put both on and headed to the door, Rick right behind her. She opened it and turned around.

"Well Detective, it has been fun. I'm glad you agreed to this. Although I thought you would flee, after my family bailed." he said, with his usual smile on his face.

"Well, it was a close call. Good night Castle."

"Drive safely and sleep well, Detective."

After stepping into he hallway, she stopped and turned around again. Rick looked at her questioningly, probably thinking, she forgot something. She had something else on her mind though. Could she? Should she?

_'Oh what the hell.'_ she thought, stepped back in and kissed him. After his initial shock he returned the kiss but before it could get deeper she pulled back and smiled at him.

"Good night, Rick." she said and started walking to the elevator.

"Good night, Kate." he answered and closed the door.

Kate stepped into the elevator, pressed the button for the ground floor and leaned on the rail. He was a good kisser. Maybe there was something. She couldn't stop smiling all the way home until she fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Rick started cleaning up and his smile never left his face. All day he thought about his new character based on the beautiful detective and after tonight, there was nothing stopping him from doing it. First thing in the morning, he had to call his friend, the Mayor.

* * *

**A/N: I know, another fluffy thing but hey, it's fun and I have nothing better to do :)**

**A/N2: It's 40° Celsius outside in the shade, about 50° Celsius under the sun on asphalt and I'm sitting in my apartment. At least the cast if off my arm, though I'm still very limited in the movement range. But writing has become easier.**

**Review please :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: When the world has gone down into flames, I will own Castle because nobody will dare to contest my claim. But for now, they still belong to their rightful owner.**

**Chapter is rated M for security. Some very descriptive things in it.**

**Set in Season 1 but AU. Characters are wildly OOC :)**

* * *

**I will never drink again. Maybe.**

Kate opened one eye a fraction and was rewarded with a spike of pain that hammered into her skull like a nail shot out of a nail gun. She tried to remember what was going on but every attempt to focus only brought more pain and her mind was as blank as a nonfunctional computer screen.

_'What happened last night?' _she thought to herself.

The last thing she remembered was closing that big murder case and heading for drinks with the guys and Lanie. Even Captain Montgomery had joined them for a while, and given them the following day off.

She had played a drinking game with them and placed second after Lanie. How many did she have. How did she get home? How did she get into bed? All those thoughts ran around her pounding head when she felt along her body to find she was almost naked. No pants, no shirt, just her bra and very short panties.

Her panties were moist. Nothing to worry. Wouldn't be the first time she had a hot dream. Her blanket felt very strange. On her front it was the familiar feeling of cloth, but on her backside it felt different. Warm, fleshy and there was a draft hitting her neck in regular intervals.

She tried to move and suddenly felt a hand on her stomach._'Oh my god' _there was a body behind her. The draft was the breathing of said body. Minding her pounding headache, she slowly turned around, dreading who she would find and what it implicated.

_'Please don't be Castle, please don't be Castle.' _

She repeated that mantra in her head while her body finished its turn. And of course, Castle was behind her, sleeping soundly, his chest bare, his left arm round her protectively while his other arm was under his head. As soon as her brain registered what was happening, her hangover was quite forgotten.

"Castle, what the hell!" she screamed and jumped out of the bed.

With a last snort, he jerked awake, his facial expression revealing his momentary confusion about his surroundings. It didn't take long for it to dissipate once his eyes fell on her.

"Good morning to you too, Detective." she said, a smile forming on his lips.

"Good? Good? Castle, why are we in bed together? And why are you shirtless? Where are your pants? And why am I in my underwear?"

"Okay. Answer one, I brought you home and you wouldn't let me go. Answer two, you ripped it off me. Answer number three, I didn't want to sleep in jeans and answer number four, I took off your clothes before putting you to bed." he stated, a calm in his voice that made her even more furious.

"You asshole. So you got me drunk and then had you wicket way with me? You bastard, I will shoot you as soon as I find my gun!" she screamed.

"Yeah, I agree, the weather is nice right now. It looks like it will get pretty warm today." he said, still calm as a cow.

"Don't you listen to me? You're a dead man!" she screeched out.

"Yes, breakfast would be nice. But coffee first." he said, got up and went into the bathroom to relieve himself.

Despite her fury, she let him finish in there, not really wanting to disturb him doing his business. When he came out, she stood at her bedroom door, barring it with her body.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't call my colleagues and have you arrested for rape?"

"Excuse me? You think I raped you? As a matter of fact, I could have you arrested for intended rape."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"What the hell? Why should anyone believe that?"

"Because it's true, and I can prove it?"

"How?"

"I tell you what." he said, coming very close to her. "You will go into your bathroom, relieve yourself and wash up. Meanwhile I will make coffee and some breakfast. And believe me, I don't say that lightly. Because I really... really enjoy that look you have right now."

She looked down at herself and saw what he meant. She was wearing light blue underwear that was almost see through. Her panties were rumpled, showing part of her core and one breast had popped out of her bra. _'Great, I have been flashing him this whole time.'_

Without further comment, she ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

* * *

After taking a shower and brushing her teeth, she put on a shirt and yoga pants and went out into her living room. True to his word, he made coffee as well as bacon and eggs and some pancakes. He pointed to a glass of juice and a bottle of pills. Upon seeing them, her hangover headache came back in full force. Silently thanking him for his thoughtfulness, she took a pill and drank the juice before he put a large mug of hot coffee in front of her.

"So, are you calmed down enough?" he asked.

"Yes. Now start talking. What happened last night."

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Drinks at the bar. Me and Lanie finishing that drinking game."

"Oh yeah. I must say, you can put them away. I think you had two bottles of vodka alone. But Lanie still beat you by two shots."

She groaned and let her head fall on her arms, trying to ignore the pounding in her head that movement caused.

"Anyway" he continued. "We decided that I should take you home, Esposito took Lanie. When we got here, I had to carry you inside, you were incapable of standing. You started commenting how nice I smelled, which was strange cause I was sweating a little, and then how you wanted to lick the salt off my skin."

That comment brought another groan from Kate.

"You really expect me to believe that?"

"Yes. To continue, I put you into bed. You started mumbling about jeans and beds and you wanted me to undress you. I acquiesced and took off your pants after you popped the button and wiggled. And believe me, it was hard not to run my hand over your smooth skin. You look extremely hot, especially in underwear like that."

She couldn't prevent a blush from appearing on her face. "How did you end up without shirt and pants?" she asked, hiding behind her coffee mug.

"Well, I already told you why I took off my pants. And as for the shirt, you ripped it off me."

He took another bite of his pancake and waited for her to say something.

"Why should I believe you? You wanted to sleep with me since you met me."

"As I said, I can prove it."

"How?"

Instead of answering he presented his phone. She gave him an inquisitive look.

"After you said, and I quote 'Do me Castle, hard and rough. Fill me with your long, hard...'"

"Alright, alright." she interrupted him, not really wanting to hear that. "Prove it."

He lay his phone in front of her and pressed play. The scene showed her bed, she was lying in it, fully clothed. A big smile was on her face, her expression one of drunken happiness. She saw Castle walking into frame.

* * *

"_Ricky, stop standing around. I'm horny and I want you."_

"_As much as I want to Kate, you're way too drunk and I won't take advantage of you."_

"_But you have to. It's the law." she whined._

"_What law?"_

"_If a horny detective you work with wants to have her wicked way with you, you don't get to say no. Especially when she wanted to do that since day one. Now get out of those pants, help me out of mine and ravish me." she slurred._

"_No Kate. If we did this, I would never forgive myself, and neither would you. If you want sex with me, you have to come to me sober."_

"_But Riiiiiiick." she said, sounding like a child whose parents withheld chocolate._

"_No buts. I will tuck you in and head home."_

"_Nooo. Stay with me please."_

"_Don't look at me like that, I beg you." he said, seeing her puppy dog eyes and pout._

"_Stay please." she whispered._

"_Okay, but the clothes stay on."_

"_Noooo, you can't sleep in jeans. It's not good, it's very uncomfortable. Help me out of mine." she said, unbuttoning hers and started wiggling, not having much success in her current state._

"_Fine, no jeans. But the rest stays on and I'm staying on the couch." he said, resolutely._

"_You can stay here, I won't bite... hard." she said, grinning like a giddy little girl._

"_Katherine Beckett, you will be the death of me." he muttered and pulled off her pants, folding them and laying them on her chair. He took her blanket and was about to put it over her, when she suddenly sat up, grabbed his shirt and gave it a hard yank, tearing the seams open._

"_Great, one of my favorite shirts. What's gotten into you?"_

_She completely ignored his remark, instead letting her eyes roam over his chest._

"_Hello, where have you been all my life?" she asked his chest, staring to rub it with her hands. "Not fair, I'm still wearing mine." she said, and promptly yanked her own shirt over her head. Before he could look away, his eyes wandered over her almost naked body. Seeing him devouring her with his eyes, she grabbed behind his neck, pulled him down and pressed her lips on his._

_Not waiting a second, she stuck her tongue into his mouth, ravishing it and wrestling with his tongue for dominance. He started to respond to the kiss, when he came to his senses and pulled away._

"_No Kate, please don't do something you're gonna regret." he begged her._

"_But I want this, so much. I will not let you leave. If you step outside this room, I will start screaming. You will stay the night."_

"_I will make you a deal. Do you hear me?" he asked, and she nodded. "I will sleep here." He quickly interrupted her happy dance. "BUT, nothing will happen tonight."_

"_Then what is this deal supposed to be?"_

"_When we wake up in the morning, and you still want sex, I will do it. I will ravish your body in every positions you want, as often as you want me to. Do we have a deal?"_

"_Deal" she said, holding out her hand. He took it and she again tried to kiss him._

"_I said, no funny business. Or the deal is off."_

"_Fine." she said, pouting and flopped into the bed._

"_Kate, Kate, you really are a mean drunk." Rick muttered, taking off his pants and getting into bed next to her._

"_Rick?" Kate asked, turning around?_

"_What?"_

"_I want a preview." she said, sitting up._

"_Huh?" was all he could say, before she jumped on top of him and straddled his face, rapidly grinding her hips on his mouth and nose and pressing his head hard onto her with her hands. Before he could even come to grips with what just happened, she started moaning and he could feel her getting wet through her underwear. His hands flew to her hips, trying to push her off of him but before he could do that, she gasped out loud, shuddered and fell sideways off him._

"_That was great. Thank you." she said, giving him a quick kiss and getting under covers again. "Next time, we'll do it without clothing and I will take my time. You better train your tongue, mister."_

_Before he could come out of his stupor and answer her, she had already fallen asleep. He let his head flop down on his pillow and soon was asleep as well._

* * *

He pressed the stop button on the phone and took it again.

"From there, the rest of the recording is just us sleeping." he said, looking at Kate.

Kate wanted to sink into the ground. Denying what happened was one thing, but seeing the evidence was quite another. She couldn't believe it. She actually straddled him and got off after less than a minute of riding his face. Her face was the deep purple of shame and she refused to look at him.

"Why did you record it anyway?"

"When you started saying you wanted me, I thought it'd be safe to have proof that I didn't initiate it. Otherwise your reaction this morning would have probably ended with a homicide in your apartment."

"God, I can't even look at you. I'm so ashamed."

"Don't be. I admit, that... stunt... at the end surprised the hell out of me but I can imagine worse things than have a extremely beautiful woman in see-through underwear using me as a sex toy. And I must say" he said, leaning close, his voice turning to a whisper. "You taste great."

"Damn, Castle!" she yelled, still red-faced. "Please leave. And you will never taste me again. Nothing like that will ever happen again. And if that video finds itself on the internet or in the possession of someone else, I will kill you. Delete it at once. And please leave now."

"Fine." he said and pressed a few buttons. He quickly got dressed and made for the door.

Kate opened it for him but before he stepped outside, he turned to her, grabbed her head and kissed her. Like her last night, he didn't hold back and shoved his tongue into her mouth. She started responding to it but he pulled away.

Kate only gasped but before she could say anything, he just smiled and left. It took her a minute to realize that she was still standing there with an open door so she slammed it close in flopped on her couch in frustration. She would never touch alcohol again.

* * *

She spend the day at home. A movie marathon got her through the day but she only half-watched the movies. Her thoughts kept wandering to the night before and what she heard herself say and watched herself do. She couldn't believe it. She kissed Castle, tried everything to seduce him, she rode his face to an orgasm, for gods sake.

And he declined. He resisted her efforts. He made her this deal though. In retrospect it was clear that he did that to get her off him. Would he have done it? Would he have slept with her, if she had woken up in the morning and told him she wanted him? She wasn't sure if she didn't want it. The thought alone made her hot and wet again. And then he kissed her.

Cursing herself and her hormones, she took a quick shower, brushed her teeth and went to bed. She found his ripped shirt under the pillow and smelled it. It smelled like him. She put it back onto the pillow then took her phone to set the alarm and noticed a message from Rick.

**Thought you might want that for posterity. If not, just delete it :)**

Attached to the message was a video. No, not just a video. THE video. She sighed, her thumb hovering over the delete button. Cursing, he hit play instead. When it reached the real juicy part, her left hand found itself between her legs, rubbing her center. She climaxed the same time she saw her video self shuddering as it again rode Rick's face.

Whatever the future might bring, she would never be able to look at his mouth again.

* * *

She was roughly wakened by the sound of her ringing phone. She fumbled for a second before bringing it up to her ear. It was Esposito.

"Beckett."

"We got a body. Sending you the address."

"Be there in 20 minutes." she said, hanging up and jumping out of her bed.

30 minutes later, she arrived at the crime scene. Flashing her badge to the uniform guarding the alley entrance, she approached the body. Lanie was already at work on it.

"What have we got?"

"Male, late 30s, early 40s. Knife wound to the chest. Clothes are ripped. Wallet is there but money is missing as is his watch, his necklace and his ring. Victim's name is Ricardo Esteban. Known as a local pimp. Based on liver temp and lividity, I guess ToD was between 1 and 3 am. Where's writer boy?"

"Probably sleeping at home. So, this could be a mugging gone wrong."

"Looks like it. But a knife is a strange weapon for that. I'll know more once I get him to the morgue."

"Yo Boss, uniforms have found no witnesses." Esposito said, appearing next to her.

"Who found him?" Kate asked.

"Paperboy. Said, he always cuts through this alley. First thought he was a drunk lying in the street. Called the police when he saw the blood."

"Okay, have units canvas the area and lets question the residents later if anybody heard something. Anything else?" she asked Lanie after Esposito walked away.

"I wanted to ask, did you get home okay? I heard Castle gave you a ride." Lanie said.

Kate blushed heavily and turned away.

"That bastard, I will kill him." she muttered.

"Whoa girl, easy. I meant, I heard he paid for the cab to take you home. What's gotten into you?" When Kate didn't say anything, Lanie's eyes went wide. "Oh my god, something happened between you two? Did you do the nasty while drunk?"

"Lanie!" Kate shout-whispered.

"Come on, did he make a move?" Kate only looked away, ashamed. "Oh god, you made the move? I'm so proud of you? How was it? Was he good? How long did he last?"

"Lanie, for crying out loud!"

"Girl, spill. Right now. If you don't, I will interrogate Castle. And you know he will tell me everything."

Kate grabbed Lanie and dragged her to her car.

"Okay, I was too drunk to remember. I wanted him to ravish me, he declined, I stripped to my underwear and ripped his shirt off, he still resisted. Then he made a deal to do me that in the morning if I wanted to, he would do me. Before falling asleep... Irodehisfacetoanorgasm." Kate said, speed-talking the last part, hoping that Lanie wouldn't understand. No such luck of course.

"You did what? Damn, you don't mess around. And?"

"And what?"

"Did you do it in the morning?"

"No, I shouted at him, while I flashed him and he proved to me what happened because he had recorded it with his cell phone."

"Can I see the video?"

"What? No!"

"Come on, just a quick peek."

"No Lanie."

"Fine. So, did you want to?"

"Want what?

"Well, have sex with him in the morning."

"I told you, I was shocked and shouted at him. I couldn't remember anything about the night."

"Yes, but after seeing the video?"

Kate stood there silently, her eyes looking straight forward at nothing in particular.

"As much as I want to deny it, yes, I really want to."

"That's my girl. Off you go, you have a writer to visit and ravish."

"Are you crazy? I can't just go to his house and have sex with him."

"Why not?"

"It would make me look desperate. Alexis and Martha could see us. It would be wrong. Yes that's it, it's wrong."

"Then invite him to your place. And I want details. Copious amounts of details. All of it. Girth, stamina, technique."

Before Kate could answer, Lanie got into the morgue mobile and took off. Kate sighed and made her way to the precinct. She had a murder to solve.

* * *

Placing the picture of the victim on the murder board and preparing a rudimentary timeline with the information they already had, Kate didn't hear the ding of the elevator.

"Good morning, Detective." Castle said in his usual manner, placing a cup of coffee and a pastry bag on her desk. "What's the case?"

"Dead pimp, stabbed to death in an alley. Paperboy found him."

Before Castle could replay, her phone rang.

"Beckett... Okay, we'll be right down. Come on, Lanie's got something." she said, and turned towards the elevator. Castle followed her and soon they entered the morgue.

"What have you got?" she asked.

"Good morning to you to. Hello writer boy." Lanie replied, looking at Castle with a big smile. His eyes went wild.

"You told her!" he whispered to Kate.

"Can we not do this now please? What's the information?" she answered, directing the second question to Lanie.

"Our blood work showed cocain in his system, he probably was a regular user. More importantly, while the knife wound killed him, he'd have died anyway because someone hit him in the adam's apple which shut his windpipe."

"So the knife was more like a mercy killing then?" Castle asked.

"Could be. But that would imply that the hit on his throat was accidental."

"Did he had something in his pockets?" he asked again.

"No, he was robbed, wallet was empty of cash and his necklace et cetera were gone. The clothes itself are designer, the jacket was probably custom made for him, it didn't have any markings. But it had traces of make up on it."

"Can I see it?"

"Knock yourself out, but don't forget the gloves."

Castle put on rubber gloves and took the jacket out of the evidence bag. He patted it down, while both women watched in confusion.

"Castle, the pockets are empty, we already looked through them." Kate said to him.

"Yes, but remember, he was a pimp who had this jacket custom made. Logic dictates, he had some special need to get a custom made jacket, instead of buying a high end designer one for several thousand dollars."

He continued to rummage through it until his face lit up.

"Eureka. Look what I found." he said and proudly held up a small notebook.

"Where did you find that?" Kate asked.

"Hidden pocket. Pimps often use them when available to hide their wares."

"Their wares?"

"Yes, or in this case, he has a list of his women." he said, holding out the little notepad. Inside were three pages filled with names and phone numbers.

"How did you know about that?" Lanie asked.

"Research. For one of my books, that never came out actually, I spoke to several pimps. One of them beat me up by the way. But one was a fan of mine and therefore very forthcoming. Told me about the small secrets pimps have. The bottle of scotch he downed also helped loosen his tongue."

"Wow, I guess you and your silver tongue could talk the pope into atheism." Kate said, a huge smile on her face.

"Why detective, you do have some idea what my tongue is capable of." he answered in a low voice, leaning towards her.

Kate blushed furiously as Lanie tried her hardest to suppress a laugh. Before any woman could say something, Castle turned around and started walking.

"Lets go Beckett, we have whores to interview."

Still blushing and throwing Lanie an icy look, Kate followed him.

* * *

The interviews were very productive. The fourth woman they brought into the interrogation room completely broke down and confessed the murder. She told them, he was about to beat her up for keeping some of the money and during the fight, she hit him in the throat. As he was lying on the ground, slowly asphyxiating, she took pity on him and used his own knife to kill him quickly.

She took his valuables to sell them for more money and wanted to move to another town for a new start but was picked up by the police before.

"Thank you Miss Adams." Kate said, after said woman signed the confession. "I'm sure given the circumstances, the judge will give out a reduced sentence, seeing as it was more an accident born out of self defense instead of a planned murder."

Still crying, the woman was led away by uniforms. Kate took the pictures off the murder board and cleaned it before sitting down for the paperwork. Instead of sitting down next to her, Castle remained standing and put his jacket on.

"Well, as much as I like to watch you do paperwork, I have to go take Alexis and Mother to the airport. They will take a short vacation with Alexis' mother in Los Angeles. If you want me, you know were to find me." he said, winked at her and left.

Kate only sat her desk open-mouthed and watched him leave. _'He said want me, not need me. Does he really expect me... No, I'm sure it was just a mistake.'_

Despite all her efforts, it was very hard to concentrate on the paperwork. Her thoughts went back to the video and his comment about the abilities of his tongue. She could feel heat pooling between her legs and cursed the day she got drunk as a sailor. And she cursed his restraint. Despite not remembering the night, she was absolutely sure that she wanted it to happen. She wanted him to ravish her, run his tongue over every inch of her body, penetrating...

_Dear lord, focus on your job.' _she thought, interrupting her musings. Frustrated, she wrote with so much pressure, she ripped a hole into the paper.

After 5 hours of mind-numbing paperwork, she headed home and took a long shower. Stepping into her bedroom, she saw Rick's torn shirt on her pillow and froze in place. Something clicked in her head and she already cursed herself. She got dressed and left the apartment.

* * *

Around 8 pm, a knock was heard on a door. A certain author opened it, seeing a certain detective standing in front of it. No words of greeting were spoken. The detective jumped the author, planting her lips on his. The kiss was only interrupted after 15 minutes, when their need for oxygen became to much for their noses and needed their mouths for help.

Then, words were spoken.

"I want to. I really, really want to." the detective said, before fusing their mouths together again and ruining another shirt of the author.

The author stayed silent, only grabbing the detectives ass and lifting her up, carrying her to his bedroom. Pants, socks and her shirt were quickly discarded, earning an appreciative glare from the author at the lack of underwear on the detective's body.

Before the ravishing started, the author was wrestled on his back with the detective straddling his face again. The only sounds made for the next hour were moans, groans and the occasional yelp when a yet another climax was reached.

At 2 am in the morning, a medical examiner was woken up by a buzzing sound. Picking up the phone, the examiner saw several messages from her best friend. Eyes squinting in confusion, she opened the first.

**Girth: almost too big for my body, way too big for my mouth.**

The examiner opened the next message.

**Technique: Very talented. Amazing tongue, climaxed five times from it. Done every position conceivable. **

The examiner grinned and opened the third message.

**Stamina. Began around 8 pm. 6 rounds and counting. Can feel him growing again. See you in the morning. Maybe. Might not be able to walk later.**

The examiner saved the messages and went back to sleep. She smiled as she thought of the money she just won.

* * *

**A/N: And another one. Started writing and couldn't stop. Situation was inspired by a real life event of mine, after waking up naked next to a gorgeous naked girl after a new years eve party with no recollection of the nights events but being met with grins and snickers from the other guests. But the video part came from my imagination ^^**

**A/N2: If you like my writing style, you can give me suggestions about situations you might want to read about :D**

**Review please :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: This one again is set in season 1, and characters are again OOC, especially Kate :)**

**Disclaimer: I could own Castle. But I'm too big a man to insist. So for now, I leave them in the hands of Andrew Marlowe and ABC :D**

* * *

He was seriously pissing her off. She tried to calm down by shooting the target in front of her and he kept yapping away at her about how she made a promise based on her own past.

"Wouldn't it be more of challenge if they weren't standing still?" she heard him say over the sounds of the shots.

'_Okay, that's it.'_ she thought and beckoned him over, changing the target to a fresh one and handing him the gun. His reaction the one of a 5-year old, which made her doubt her decision, especially after he got ready by holding the gun with one hand like a duelist.

_'Oh brother.' _"It's not a duel Scaramouche." she told him before he could shoot and probably hurt himself. She stepped in behind him, grabbing his back and arms to bring him into the correct position. When she grabbed his arm, the gun suddenly went off.

"Oh. Shot too soon." he said. She couldn't see his slight smile but she understood the innuendo.

"Well, we could always just cuddle Castle." she said accepting the banter and turning her face to him, smiling broadly.

"Oh funny. And a smile. Good." the way he said that made her drop the smile. Part of that was the realization, that this annoying man-child was the reason for the smile. He shot again, blowing a hole in the canvas above the targets left shoulder.

"That's... better." Kate said, a little sarcasm evident in her voice. _'He's really not good at this. But why would he, he's a writer.'_

"You know, I came down here to ask you if I could take home some of those stolen property photos." he told her, taking aim again.

"Photos of the jewelry, why?"

"I don't know, thought it might spark something." Taking another shot, he finally hit the target shape, in the area where the groin would be. "Uh, that gotta hurt." he said, his face wincing at the imagined pain a man would feel.

_'Time for a little fun.' _she thought. "Tell you what. You put any of the next three in the ten ring and I will give you the files."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, but why don't we make it even more interesting?" he asked her.

"What do you mean?"

"How many bullets are left in the magazine?"

"Six." she said, after a short pause for mental math.

"How about this. If I hit the ten once, I get the files. If I hit it three times with those six shots, you owe me a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"Anything I want, whenever I want."

"No Castle."

"Why not? Be a little fun please."

"No, because I can imagine what this 'favor' would be."

"Ok, then this. You owe me a favor but it won't include any form of touching or nudity."

"Well." she said, thinking. '_He isn't that good of a shooter.'_ "Ok, if you make 55 points or more with those six bullets, you have a deal."

"That would be... three times the center, twice the nine ring and one time the seven."

"Like that, yes."

"You drive a hard bargain, detective. But I'll accept your challenge." he said, briefly shaking her hand, before quickly taking aim and putting all six shots into the ten ring.

Kate was stunned. That bastard had been playing her this whole time. And he seemed to be a better shooter than she was. She gave him a glare that made hard-nosed killers wet their pants, but he only smiled at her.

"You're a very good teacher." he said and walked off, with her right behind him.

* * *

The rest of the day went strange. Castle got information out of a jewel thief that she couldn't get and he found the charity where the murderers got the information about their victims. And Castle roped her into going to said charity event as his date to get inside information.

And being home now, showered and with Lanie sitting on her bed and shooting down every dress she presented to her, she once again complained about Castle and his apparent need to humiliate her. And after a delivery boy brought her a package from HIM, she knew that her claim was true. But, after opening it, she had to somewhat remedy her opinion. She took the package and went to her bathroom to put the content on.

She had to admit, the dress was very lovely. But on the other hand, she knew exactly why he chose that one. The low cut back and front would prevent her from wearing a bra, the tight fit made wearing a gun or anything else nigh on impossible and would show her curves in a very forthcoming way.

Lanie was still squeaking about it as Kate presented it to her. She kept talking about how thoughtful 'writer-boy' was, buying her a dress for the undercover mission, somehow knowing Kate didn't have a dress fit for a black tie event.

He somehow also knew that she didn't need shoes. Lanie had to snicker quietly when Kate walked into her shoe closet, the amount of shoes rivaling some shoe stores in the amount it held, and picked up a lovely pair of high heels that fitted nicely with the dress.

After doing hair and make-up, she was ready to leave.

"Lanie, can you drive me to Castle's? I don't really want to take a cab in that dress."

"Sure thing girl. But I want details of your hot night later." Lanie said, earning herself an eye roll and both went on their way.

* * *

8 pm sharp. She was nervous. Not because of the mission but about his reaction to the dress. Kate couldn't really prevent the butterflies roaming around in her stomach. She couldn't even understand why, that man bugged the hell out of her. Sighing, she knocked on Castle's door. His mother opened it and took a very appreciative glance at her.

"Stunning, simply stunning." Martha said, gesturing in a very dramatic fashion. "Come in, come in. Oh, hang on." Before Kate could say anything, Martha ran off.

Slowly she went inside. This time she didn't gaze in wonder about his beautiful home, having been here before. The butterflies came back full force, when Castle came from his office with his daughter. But it was Alexis who spoke first.

"You look incredible." the young redhead said.

Kate couldn't really say why, but those three words from the teenager did a lot to calm her down. Kate knew she was considered a beautiful woman, Castle said that a lot, in his own words, but hearing it from Alexis made her feel really good about herself.

"Really?" she asked Alexis, her voice betraying her nervousness.

"Really." Castle said, his tone very appreciative. "You clean up nice detective."

The way he said that made her heart flutter. She looked at him and how he was dressed and he looked amazing. He was dressed in a perfectly fitting black tuxedo with a necktie and a white shirt underneath. His hair was trimmed and he shaved. She wanted to tell him how hot he looked but her tongue wouldn't form the words.

"Thank you Castle." she managed to get out, feeling extremely nervous about the way he looked at her. Before the situation could get more awkward, Martha came back and stepped behind her.

"I was nominated for a Tony once..." she said and put a extravagant yet tasteful necklace around her neck.

"Oh Martha, I couldn't..." Kate started to say, wanting to reject the necklace.

"Yes you can, let me..." Martha said, stepping in front of her and fitting the necklace into place. "Oh, it's brilliant. So, where are you guys headed tonight?"

"Ah, we're going to the Waldorf." Kate said, before noticing Castle's desperate attempts signaling her to be silent. As soon as the name of the hotel came out of her mouth, his expression became a mixture of exasperation and defeated acceptance. Martha just smiled at him as if she had won a great victory, while Rick only looked at the wall.

* * *

She had to give Rick credit, he went all out in their pretend date to the fundraiser. The limousine was comfortable and roomy. Accepting the champagne he poured her out of courtesy, she leaned back into the seat and watched the city go by. Rick had sat down on the seat in front of her, but she suspected that was more because he wanted to look at her than another motive. And although she wanted this evening to be over as soon as possible, the limousine ride ended way too soon.

The driver opened the door and Rick stepped out first, then extending his hand to help her out. She gave him a genuine smile of thanks as she took it and stepped out into the open, the flashes of photographers illuminating the front of the hotel, while spectators ringed the entrance behind steel railings.

She put her arm into the crook of Castle's and together they started walking down the red carpet, the photographers turning their attention to them. While she was uneasy by the attention put on them, she couldn't help but smile genuinely as she walked with Rick towards the entrance.

_'This feels good.'_ she thought to herself, reveling in the moment of being arm in arm with Rick Castle, waling down a red carpet to a charity event. For a moment, she wasn't Detective Beckett, on her way to an undercover mission, right now she was Kate Beckett, a woman on her way to enjoy a nice evening with a handsome man at her side. _'Wait, handsome? Oh well, he is kind of handsome. Also, he's cuddly.' _she kept thinking, back to the comment she made about cuddling with him right before he tricked her on the shooting range into giving him the pictures and a favor.

The smile dropped from her eyes and became a fake one, when she saw Ryan and Esposito standing midway to the entrance, comparing the sketch with the people who came in. She felt uneasy with how they looked at her, although Castle did the same thing earlier.

"Nice dress." Ryan smirked

"Yeah, what there is of it." Esposito mumbled, just loud enough for the four of them to hear.

"I'd let you borrow it Esposito but you stretched out the last one." she said, her comment earning her a laugh from Rick. Soon enough, they were inside, away from the eyes of the onlookers.

* * *

The inside was nice. It was warm but not hot, so the men wouldn't sweat in the suits and the women not feel cold in their dresses, the buffet was amazing and drinks were on the house. But the first she saw after heading inside was the mayor and Rick greeting him with a hug and first name.

She knew that he was close to the mayor, having used his connection to circumvent the backlog in the lab and getting himself attached to the precinct. But seeing it only showed her, how different their worlds were. Other thoughts went out of her head, when the mayor went away but not after commenting how much better she looked than the description he got from Rick. He was about to get an earful.

"You talk about me to Bob?" she asked him but didn't know if she should feel annoyed or elated.

"We play cards together. And you are the subject of my next book." he told her, as if that justified everything. "Would you like a drink?"

"Yeah, vodka. Lots of vodka." she said but before he could run off to get a bottle, she remembered something important. "But I'm on duty, so... water?"

He ran off, muttering something like 'Yeah, vodka' and she took the opportunity in the other guests. She had to admit, albeit reluctantly, that Castle was right. The donors wore their jewelry and showed off the goods to any potential robber quite nicely. Now she only had to find the people who wanted to steal them.

Suddenly feeling a sort of loss, she looked around for Castle. _'Why am I doing that? I'm a grown woman, I can take down anyone here one on one but I look for the guy who drives me crazy because I miss him. Wait, I miss him?' _Then she saw him. He was talking to a woman and a man, shaking his hand, with the drinks he was supposed to get them momentarily forgotten on the bar. Now she felt annoyed again but for all the wrong reason. She felt left alone by him. He was supposed to be her date and that means he should stay with her, dance with her and flirt with her. _'No, no dancing and flirting.'_

As she looked on, a woman was suddenly beside her.

"Don't sweat it. That's just Rachel, Anne's Head of Development. She's only after his money...so to speak."

"Oh, I'm Ruthie." she said, introducing herself and extending her hand.

"Um, Beck... I'm Kate. Nice to meet you. Do you work for the charity?" she asked her, trying to cover up her almost slip up. Dates for millionaires don't introduce themselves with only their last names.

"No. No. But I am on the circuit. You know, breast Cancer, land mines. Oh, you know what the best one is? Um, uh, that project what do you call it - the one with the lips? There are a lot of, uh, plastic surgeons there. Fish in a barrel."

_'Ok, she's the one after money and not in the charitable context.'_ Kate thought, already not liking her. But still, she played along. "Really?"

"Mmm. Oh! Not that you need any help from me. I see you've got a big one on the line. Settle in, Katie. I hear he's a fighter."

_'What the hell is she talking about?' _Kate thought before understanding set in. "Um... Sorry, Castle?"

"Oh, most of the girls on the register have tried to land him. Rich and handsome. We call him the white whale."

That was definitely odd. She always pictured Castle taking a lot of these women, even if it was just for one or two nights to have fun. But it seemed, the opposite was true. Playboy Castle, not using his fame, wealth and the apparent interest of a lot of women to his advantage.

After Ruthie excused herself, Beckett continued her rounds when it became clear that Castle wouldn't be back for a few more minutes. She decided to radio Esposito outside.

"Negative on anyone matching our sketch. How are we doing on vendors and staff?"

"No red flags yet." came his reply. "Hey, so what's it like in there? Is it a buffet or passed hors d'oeuvres?"

"Both. Hey have you seen the..."

Before she could finish her question, her wrist was grabbed by a strong hand, pulling her away. A second later she found herself on the dance floor in Castle's arms, slowly dancing to the music. She realized that this was quite nice but her annoyance won.

"Castle, what are you doing?" she asked him, hoping her voice would tell him more than her mouth could.

"Sorry, this is the only place I knew we could talk and not be overheard." he explains to her.

"Sure it is." she said, not buying his attempts.

"I was just talking to the Head of Donor Development over there..."

With that, Castle twirls Beckett out so she can see Rachel, who's talking to the guy she was with before, then pulls her back in, continuing their slow dance.

"She seems to know an awful lot about me."

"She's not the only one. Did you know that they call you the white whale?"

"The white whale? Not Moby..."

"No." she interrupts him, not wanting him to say the word that would make her thoughts wander into an area she'd be very uncomfortable with.

"She's in donor development. It's her job to know about you. Besides, she doesn't strike me as a criminal mastermind."

"Still, I think we should take a second look. Two, three, dip... "

Again, she found herself in an awkward position, this time looking around upside down. Under normal circumstances, the position wouldn't have caused any suspicion but he wasn't lifting her up again.

"Castle? A little help." she tells him but he's still holding her in the dipped position, not even looking at her, his face turning to anger.

"It's Powell." she says through clenched teeth, his anger now apparent.

He ran off, leaving her standing on the spot and she witnessed a heated discussion between Castle and Powell. She walked towards them, beginning to overhear the conversation just when Castle accused the two in front of him of cooperation to murder. Powell's face and explanation enough to calm down Castle, the woman from before, Rachel, stood on the stage and began the charity auction.

But instead of beginning with the items that were auctioned off, she introduced Martha, Castle's mother, who promptly put her son on the auction block. Kate couldn't help but smile but inwardly she was doing a happy dance. This was going to be so much fun.

* * *

And fun it was. With every bid for an evening with him, Castle's face fell more and more, especially when one bid came from a male guest. She more felt and saw him turning to her.

"Look, I have money. Anything you pay, I'll pay you back." he said to her, desperation in his voice.

"Oh, not a chance in hell, Castle."

No, she was enjoying his discomfort way too much to help him. But then he said what she dreaded.

"I'm collecting my debt. I want the favor."

"Oh no, you cheated when you made that bet and this is too good to stop it."

"Please, I buy you a pony."

"No, I couldn't care for it."

"I'll do you laundry for a week?"

"And have you fondle my underwear? Nice try Castle."

"A new car?"

"I have a car."

"I let you play poker with me and my writer buddies."

That got her attention. Not so much the poker but meeting Patterson or Cannell?

"Sweet offer but I can't even dream of affording the buy-in you guys must have."

"Ok, I sweeten the deal. Whatever you pay, I pay back double. And you can use that money for the buy-in."

Kate could only sigh. In her mind she was weighing the pros and cons. Finally deciding that poker with her other favorite writers was worth more than one humiliating evening for Castle, she lifted her arm and yelled.

"Fifteen thousand."

Rick looked at her in surprise at her offer, which was more than double the last one. If she was getting paid for doing this, she was going to be paid well. Martha, seeing who offered this amount, quickly ended the auction. She heard Rick grumble something about women and golddiggers but decided to let it go. Then Castle spotted something.

"Hey look, there's donor's boyfriend over there, taking pictures."

"So?"

"Of the crowd."

She snapped her head around and true enough, he took pictures not even of the crowd but of the jewelry hanging around their necks.

* * *

An hour later they had the information they came for.

A day later, they had the guy they looked for.

Another day later, she was sitting in Castle's loft, eating scrambled eggs and bacon and drinking extremely delicious coffee after being roped into having a family breakfast with Castle's family, telling tales of a magical evening. And although she couldn't quite explain it, she felt more at ease than in a long time, sitting with Rick, Alexis and Martha, having a nice breakfast. If she ever had a family, this was exactly what she wanted.

Kate was ready to leave for work, being already late when Castle stopped her.

"You have tomorrow off, right?"

"Yes, why?"

"Today is poker night. Lehane, Patterson and Cannelly are in town. Remember, you won entry."

He grinned like a child on Christmas. And without realizing it, she was grinning right back. Their moment was broken when they heard the click of a cellphone camera.

"This is so sweet." Alexis muttered and rushed off.

Kate blushed and left for work. For her, the shift couldn't be over soon enough.

* * *

After getting off work at 4 pm, Kate went home and took a quick shower. Dressing in a modest but attractive way, she made her way to Castle. When he opened the door, she thought she would faint.

"Kate, what are you doing here?" he asked, standing there with nothing but a towel around his waist, hair still wet.

"You said today was poker night, I thought, you'd be naked. Um, ready." she quickly corrected her faux pas, hoping he didn't pick it up. Which, considering the wiggling of his eyebrows, he did.

"Why detective Beckett, do we have dirty thoughts?" he asked, grinning. "But please, come in and make yourself comfortable, while I finish my shower."

He led her to the couch and went in the direction of his office, which led to his bed- and bathroom.

"If you miss me too much, you know where to find me." he said, wriggling his eyebrows again and earning himself an eye-roll.

Kate waited on the couch for a few minutes before the boredom made her move. She want into Castle's office, looking at the books on his shelves, the fake murder board inactive today, and taking in the amazing library of Richard Castle. There was everything there. Regular books, study books about forensic medicine, investigative work, weapons and every topic one could think of.

_'Man, when he said he does extensive research for his books, he wasn't kidding.' _she thought, seeing even books about cults and religion. '_Rick must be one of the most learned people on the planet.'_

When she slowly turned and let her gaze wander around, a not quite closed door came into her focus. That in itself wouldn't be anything peculiar if that door didn't lead to the bedroom of a certain writer she was quite the fan of. That too wouldn't be something to worry, if said writer wasn't standing next to his bed, the towel that had been around his waist before lying on his bed, with him next to it in his birthday suit.

_'Oh my god!' _she thought. _'I'm standing in Richard Castle's office and Richard Castle is naked in the room next to me with an open door. Please Kate, look away. Do it now!'_

Her body ignored her brain's commands and kept her eyes fixed on the body standing a few feet away from her. His back was turned to her, giving her an unobstructed view on almost his entire body. The only thing she couldn't see where his feet and his calves, the height of his bed blocking her line of sight. But everything else was up for optical grabs.

Her gaze wandered from his broad shoulders to his equally broad back, down towards his hips. Knowing she couldn't stop or turn away, she steeled herself but still noticed a furnace igniting in her lower body when her eyes dropped to his butt. _'Holy hell, those are some firm cheeks.'_

It took all her self-control to not barge in and run her hands all over his back and grab his ass. Her thoughts were interrupted violently when he turned partially around, giving her a partial view of his front but not hiding enough to leave something very important to the imagination.

At the size of his member, her breath hitched. _'Dear lord, he's packing. What am I doing. Look away Kate, please, I beg you.' _And still her body wouldn't obey. He was like a car crash. She couldn't look away, no matter how hard she tried. She knew that her body was going autopilot. She saw it all in her head. She would run in, drop every piece of clothing on her body, throw herself on his bed, her ass lifted up towards him, begging him to ravish her body.

Bit it didn't happen. Her control of her body came back when he stepped out of sight. She took a deep breath that sounded something like a mix of a whimper and a sob and ran out of the office, quickly sitting down on the couch again and doing every technique she knew to get her breathing under control. She had barely finished when he came out and sat next to her.

"So Kate, tell me. Why did you come here?"

"What do you mean? You told me today was poker night."

"Yes, poker NIGHT. We start at 8 pm. It's not even 5." he said, looking at his watch.

"Oh. I thought..."

"Don't worry, you'll meet them, I promised you that. But now it's a little awkward. I wanted to write a chapter before they arrived and I wouldn't want to leave you sitting here alone."

"Oh, you can go write. I'm sure there's something I can do to amuse myself." _'Yeah there is, but that wouldn't give you the opportunity to write.'_

"If you want, you can peruse my book collection. Come with me." he said, and led her into his office. "There, pick something. I'll be here writing."

Without further talks he sat down and began hammering on the keyboard. Kate took a history book but after reading the first page, her eyes went to Rick again, watching in fascination as he brought the characters in his head to life. It wasn't until he cleared his throat at her before she snapped out of her stupor.

"That's quite creepy you know, watching me work."

"Yeah, now you know how I feel. But I'm sorry, I'll go to the living room then you can go on writing."

"Uh Kate, it's 7:30. The others will be here soon."

"Say what?"

She had watched him write for more than two hours and didn't even realize it. Now she really was unnerved.

"Come on, you can help me with the snacks. Oh, before I forget. Here." he said, giving her a check.

"What's this?"

"My end of the bargain."

"But Rick? That's a check for ten grand!"

"Yes. Don't you remember? You get back double what you paid, which was fifteen grand, and the buy-in for tonight is five grand. I just keep the five and give you the rest."

"I can't accept that. It's way too much."

"You can and you will. A deal is a deal. And I still owe you a fancy dinner, since you bought it. And I like that you are calling me Rick."

"But..." she started to say, wanting to return the money and get out of the dinner but his last comment totally threw her off. She called him by his first name and didn't even realize it. Before panic could set in, he was out of the office setting the table and soon enough the door bell rang and three more mystery writers entered the loft.

"Guys, let me introduce you to Detective Kate Beckett, one of New York's finest and the inspiration for Nikki Heat. She'll be playing with us tonight."

"Rick?" Patterson started, and eyebrow raised.

"Long story, had to get out of a sticky situation and this was her bribe. Just enjoy the evening."

They all shook her hand and introduced themselves. As if they would need to do that. Kate was happy she was able to return the greetings, instead of giggling with her head down.

It didn't take long before the first hand was dealt.

* * *

"Full house." Kate proudly proclaimed.

"Dammit." Patterson rumbled, throwing his cards on the table.

Kate grabbed the chips she just won, giggling like a school girl, earning herself a smile from Rick. Usually she never giggled but sitting here, enjoying the company of four famous authors and taking their money was great. And they were great company as well, never letting her feel as something less than an equal. The amount of alcohol she had consumed during the game helped her giggling too.

"Ok, one more hand, then game over." Canell said.

"Why? It's so much fun." Kate complained, almost whining.

"It's almost two in the morning, sweetheart." Rick said, also more than slightly inebriated.

"Ok, honey. But just because you asked nicely." Kate giggled to Rick, not even annoyed at his use of a word like sweetheart.

"You need one of us to take you home?" Lehane asked her.

"No, I will sleep here." Kate answered, getting a raised eyebrow from Rick.

"Well, I guess we established that she sleeps here." Rick commented sarcastically but inwardly more than happy to accommodate here.

The blinds were made and everybody threw his or her chips to the center of the table.

Patterson dealt the hand. Kate checked her cards, not letting the alcohol coursing through her body betray her pokerface when she saw the king of hearts and king of clubs. She looked to Rick, whose face also didn't betray anything of his hands.

As small blind, Rick was the first to raise.

"Raise fifty." he said, throwing the proper chip into the middle.

"I call and raise you another hundred." Kate said smugly, and threw her chips in.

"Too much for my hand." Lehane complained and threw down his cards.

"I call." Patterson said and threw his chips in.

"Fold." came from Cannell.

"Call." Rick said and matched Kate's initial raise.

When the flop was played, Kate almost lost her pokerface. The other two kings and a queen of spades. Kate had four of a kind, which more or less guaranteed her the win.

"Raise another hundred." Rick said, throwing more chips into the middle.

"Call." Kate said, not wanting to show her good hand by raising too much.

"Fold." Patterson said, threw his cards on the table and sat back with a sigh. No matter who won this hand, the three authors had been thoroughly whipped today.

The turn was played, a three of hearts. Rick blinked once before making his bet.

"Raise two hundred."

"Call and raise another two hundred." Kate replied smugly.

The other writers laughed and made appreciative comments about the intensity of those two. Rick and Kate only looked into each others eyes, both trying to gauge the other but soon forgetting everything. A knocking on wood brought both back to reality and Rick quickly matched Kate's chips.

The river was played and showed a nine of spades. Rick looked at Kate and wriggled his eyebrows.

"Alright detective. All in." he said and shoved his chips into the middle of the table.

"I call. You will not beat me this time writer-boy."

"Oh, I think I will detective."

"Wanna bet?"

"Hm, makes me wonder what we were doing so far..."

"I mean, wanna raise the stakes a little bit?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"We each bet something in case the other wins. No one is allowed to say no."

"I'm not quite following, but alright."

"So." Kate began, sitting up and way too drunk but she didn't care. She had a winning hand and wanted to see his eyes pop out. "If you beat me, I will do a sensual dance for you in my underwear. And you can even touch me if you behave."

She succeeded. His eyes went wide enough for them to really almost pop out. The other writers were equally shocked at this.

"Alright, you're on. And if you beat me, I will do your paperwork for six months." Rick replied smoothly, earning a choke from Kate.

Now she became nervous. She knew he hated doing paperwork with a passion and for him to offer six months showed her that was an extremely good bluffer or he really had a good hand. But she had four kings, that was enough and no aces were on the table.

"Deal." she said, extending her hand and he shook it.

She turned her two cards around with a loud "HA!" and sat back as he took in her four kings. Still smiling, he turned around his cards on after the other.

The first was a ten of spades.

Kate became very nervous.

The second was a jack of spades.

He had a straight flush. The only hand that could beat a four of a kind. A pit opened in her stomach and she fell in. The grin never left his face, even after the others stood up. They all shook her hand and she said goodbye to them but didn't really hear herself. All she could think about was what she had gotten herself into.

* * *

She was sitting on the bed in Castle's guestroom. She still had to spend the night, her inebriation preventing her to drive home. She had her head in her hands when Rick walked in and brought her an oversized shirt and shorts for her to sleep in.

"There's a new toothbrush in the bathroom." he said, pointing to the other door in the room. To his credit, he didn't make any comment about their deal, just wished her good night and left for his own bedroom.

What had she gotten herself into. She won a nice sum of money that's for sure but that was offset by her stupidity. Damn alcohol. She had agreed to a sensual dance in her underwear for Castle! After freshening up and brushing her teeth she started changing clothes for the night. After taking off her pants and shirt, she was about to take off her bra when she looked at herself in the mirror.

Make up was still on, her skin still smooth. If Kate Beckett was one thing, she was someone who honored her bets. She bet, she lost, she had to pay. So, without further thinking about it and before any doubts could set in, she grabbed a robe and headed to Castles bedroom. When she barged in without knocking, he was standing next to his bed, clad only in his boxers.

"A bet is a bet. And I want to do my part before I sober up enough." she said, started a slow song on his bedroom stereo and took off her robe. When she saw his jaw hitting the floor, she thought that maybe today it wasn't such a good idea to wear a thong. Pushing the thought aside, she started dancing.

* * *

She had danced a while. Although she was immensely embarrassed at the beginning, she slowly started to enjoy it and the things she did to him. He seemed to be fighting hard to keep himself from drooling, the tent in his boxers clearly showing his arousal. Kate, knowing what waited behind the cloth, became aroused as well.

So aroused that she started to dance close to him, sitting in his lap, her back to his front, and grinding herself on his groin to the rhythm of the music. He groaned and moaned but surprisingly enough, he behaved. Kate didn't know if she should be glad or annoyed that he didn't feel her up, on the other hand, she didn't know if she even wanted him too.

"You behaved nicely. You can touch me." she purred, at the same time alarmed at what she just said.

Before she could take it back, he touched her. His hands roamed across her stomach, her shoulders, arms and legs, igniting fires everywhere they touched, but staying away from her most intimate areas. She didn't understand why she did it but she took his hands and put them on her breasts.

He groaned again and started massaging her breasts, earning a moan from her. She turned around on him, his hands wandering down her back to cup her ass, starting to massage it as well, causing her hips to buck against his arousal.

Not wanting to wait anymore, she grabbed his head and kissed him roughly on the mouth. Releasing his lips, they both smiled at each other before, at the same time, their eyes rolled back in their heads and they fell down on the bed, asleep immediately.

When she woke up in early the morning, Kate smiled when she felt the most comfortable pillow she ever slept on. Her smile dropped a bit when she saw it. It dropped even more when she remembered what she did last night. But looking up at Rick's sleeping form, she suddenly didn't care. During the night, he must have pulled them onto the bed proper, never breaking sleeping arrangement with her on top of him.

She grabbed the blanket next to him and flopped it over them. For good measure and no reason she could think of, she took his right hand and placed it on her left butt cheek, enjoying the contact and falling back asleep.

Waking up around noon, both got dressed and ate a homemade lunch. Both knew that things had changed drastically between them but neither talked about it. When Kate was about to leave, she turned around and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you for yesterday. See you tomorrow at the precinct. And call me about our dinner date."

* * *

**A/N: And another one. Always wanted to have Kate in the mystery writer poker roundtable. And this is my take on what could happen but never will ^^**

**Review please :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Somewhere in the chaos of my living room is a box with the ownership documents of Castle. But until I get my lazy ass out of my chair, I will leave it there and ABC and Marlowe can play with the brand :D**

* * *

"Richard Castle's phone. He's currently occupied. May I take a message?" a female voice said.

"This is Kate Beckett? Who is this?" _'Who is that woman? And why does she speak with an Australian accent?' _Kate thought, feeling a strange pang in her gut while she thought that. _'Right, Castle's on a book tour in Australia. Damn, I forgot.'_

"I'm Leslie, how can help you?" the woman asked.

"Never mind. Don't tell him I called." Kate said and started to dress.

* * *

_'I don't believe him. He's only down there two days and he already has a floozie in his _room.'

Kate angrily brushed her teeth, finished dressing and then headed out to the crime scene.

"Hey Lanie, what have you got?" Kate asked as soon as she entered the hallway of the dorm building.

"Good morning to you too, Kate. Where's writer-boy?" Lanie asked with a tone of admonishment and quickly growing concerned when she saw Kate's expression darken at the mention of Castle. "What happened?"

"Can we not talk about that guy please? What's the case?"

"Young student, Bill Baker, 21 years old." Lanie answered, pointing at the young man who had been tied to a chair and gagged. "Victim has been dead for at least two days. Has been bound at the legs and handcuffed, also gagged and has a needle mark on the left side of his throat, directly at the carotid artery." Lanie explained to Kate.

"Cause of death?"

"So far unknown. Has no visible marks except the needle mark so I'd guess either some form of poison or drug overdose. We found a syringe next to him, one of those kitchen syringes that usually don't have needles. But this one had a push-on needle."

"Well, the fact that he's bound and gagged suggests murder."

"Yeah. I'll know more after the autopsy. But the blood work could take a few days, the lab is completely backlogged."

Lanie left with the body and Kate went outside to the boys.

"Guys, what have you got?"

"Neighbors said they haven't seen him in a while. Most said he was a loner, pretty good student, very quiet. Nobody saw or heard anything though. Also, nothing is missing, we found his wallet and some money in a drawer, so it wasn't a robbery." Esposito explained.

"It would be an odd way to kill someone if you want to rob him." Kate said.

"But we're in luck. The hallway is monitored, cameras at regular intervals. So maybe we can find the killer quickly." Ryan said. "Also, our victim has a roommate."

"Where is he?"

"He's in Japan. Had been for the last three weeks. Found travel information in the room. According to those papers, he should be back in two days."

"Ok, lets finish the canvas and set up the murder board." Kate said and quickly left, still seething with the information she found out this morning.

Kate had arranged the murder board, the places under the column for suspect annoyingly empty. A background check of the victim showed that he was an only child and his parents were both famous micro-biologists who were currently out of the country on a research trip. So far, they haven't been able to reach them.

* * *

She hadn't had any contact with Castle during the last two days. Calling was not really an option due to the time difference but he didn't even text. And if he didn't text, she wouldn't. But she didn't even know why she was pissed off. _'Ok, I need to get this off my chest.'_ she thought and made her way to the one person she could always count on in that situation.

"Hey Lanie." Kate said, after entering the morgue.

"Hey Kate, what are you doing here? The test results aren't in yet."

"I know but I wanted to talk to you."

"About?"

"I don't really know..." Kate began.

"It's something about Castle, isn't it?"

The look on Kate's face told Lanie everything she needed to know. Writer-boy did something and Kate was very unhappy about it to put it mildly. But before Kate could say something, her phone rang.

"Beckett." she spoke into it, her voice betraying her annoyance. "I'm on my way." she hung up and turned to Lanie. "The roommate is back. Gotta go." she said and left the morgue.

Lanie wasn't done by a long shot. She took out her cell and started texting to Esposito.

**Writer-boy has done something bad, Kate is seriously upset.**

Within seconds she got an answer.

**How and what? Isn't he in Australia? That's like on the other side of the planet, isn't it?**

She had to admit, it was strange that Castle could have done something so bad without being in the country. But maybe it was his absence that got Kate riled up.

**Will try to find out how and what.**

Lanie opened another contact and texted again.

**Writer-boy, you're in trouble. Kate is seriously irritated by something you did. What did you do to my girl?**

It took a few minutes before she got an answer.

**Huh? What could I have done? I haven't heard from her in almost a week. I'm not even there. Also, it's almost 2 am here, can't this wait? I'm really tired and I have to get up early to catch my plane home.**

Lanie felt a little bad about waking him, having completely forgotten about the time difference.

**Fine. I'll try to find out more from her, but if I find out that you did something, you're in for a world of hurt. Remember, I'm a trained doctor. I can make you feel a lot of pain without it showing on your body.**

She could almost hear Castle swallow hard from around the world. Grinning, she went back to her office to wait for the test results and finish some of her paperwork.

* * *

"Mister Liu, is it?" Kate asked the young asian man sitting across from her.

"Yes." came the answer, heavy with accent. "What is this about? The policemen who picked me wouldn't say anything. I couldn't even get into my dorm room. I have a valid student visa."

"Relax, Mister Liu. We only wanted to ask you some questions regarding your roommate."

"What is it? Did something happen?"

"He was murdered in your dorm room."

"Oh my god. When? How? Who did this?" the young man asked frantically.

"A few days ago and that's what we want to find out. Tell me, did Mister Baker have any enemies? Anyone you may know who would want him dead?" Kate asked.

"Not that I know of. He was always a loner. Our shared accommodation is based more on convenience than friendship. But we never argued about something. He never brought people over and rarely went out. And we sometimes talked about our lives and families."

"Was something about his behavior strange?"

"Well, he was under a lot of stress. His parents, his father especially, put a lot of pressure on him to get good grades."

"What was Mister Baker studying?"

"Anthropology. He told me that his parents wanted him to study micro-biology like they had but he didn't want to. As I understand, they had a lot of fights about it. But I always wondered why he kept going like this. He hated biology with a passion. He told me once that he found Anthropology at least bearable but he didn't like it."

"Did he want to study something else?"

"He mentioned modern art a few times but his parents wouldn't allow it. He also was active in the sports community on campus and a pretty good runner."

Kate asked the young man a few more questions but getting no useful information. She soon let the young man go.

"You're letting him go?" Esposito asked.

"He was in Japan when our victim was murdered. There are few better alibis." Kate said.

"True."

At this point, Ryan entered the bullpen.

"Beckett, we finished going through the surveillance footage. The college keeps two weeks at a time. In all that time, the only person entering or exiting the dorm room in question was our victim. The last time he entered it was three days before he was found, carrying shopping bags." Ryan explained.

"That means, a day before he died he went into the room for the last time." Kate mused.

"Right. And the door was locked from the inside, windows were shut as well and haven't been tempered with. Also there aren't any handholds and too many people walking around outside for someone to have climbed the wall."

"So, we're at a dead end." Kate said, sitting down at her desk and putting her hands behind her head. Before she could dwell on things, her phone rang again.

"Beckett. Aha...Aha...Ok, thanks Lanie...What?... No, not really...but...Hello?

She hung up on me." Kate said into the air, an incredulous expression on her face.

"What did she say?" Ryan asked.

"Cause of death was a heroin overdose. And the fingerprints on the syringe were the victims."

"Well, considering this particular variant is used as a kitchen utensil it's not so far fetched that his prints are on it. Jenny has some of those at home too. But it would mean that our suspect wore gloves." Ryan said.

"We're not getting anywhere today. Lets go home and continue tomorrow." Kate said and grabbed her jacket.

* * *

That evening, Kate got a visit from Lanie. She wasn't really in the mood for girl talk but Lanie would not back down. Soon, Kate relented and got out the wine.

"So, girlfriend, what's going on?" Lanie asked.

"I have no idea, what you are talking about?" Kate answered.

"Girl, you've been irritated all day. When I mentioned Castle earlier, you looked like you wanted to barf. Right now, you have the same look on your face."

"Not everything revolves around him Lanie. I'm just bugged about this case because we're getting nowhere."

"Girl, I'm going to smack you. Your face always dropped today when his name was mentioned, so it has to do with him. So tell me."

"Fine." Kate sighed. "When I was called to the crime scene, I called Castle, by reflex really. I had forgotten that he was on his book tour. But a woman with an australian accent picked up."

"So, you're pissed because you think Castle picked up a girl while being over there?" Lanie asked.

"No, he's a grown man, he can do what he want. As I said, I'm not mad at him."

"Girl, you are so jealous." Lanie half said, half squealed.

"I am not."

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, girlfriend. But you got it bad for writer-boy."

Lanie finished her wine and soon said her good-bye to Kate. After she left, Kate showered and brushed her teeth. After changing into her pajamas, she lay down into the bed and switched off the light.

"Jealous." she said to herself. "I'm not jealous."

Sleep wouldn't come. Her mind wandered to Castle and the woman that answered his phone.

"Damn, I am jealous."

* * *

Lanie made her way to the loft of a certain writer who would have been back by now. She quickly took out her phone and messaged a certain Latino detective.

**Javi, get Ryan and meet me at Castle's. We need to have an important talk with him.**

Soon enough, the three of them met in front of Castle's building. They got in and prepared to bring down the sky on the writer.

Rick had just finished unpacking after taking a long shower when he heard a knock on the door. Checking his watch, he saw that it was past 11 pm.

_'Who would visit me at this hour?'_ he thought and made his way to the door. After opening it, he saw three familiar faces outside but the one he really wanted to see was not with them.

"Hey guys. Missed me so much that you couldn't wait until tomorrow?" he said, smiling at the group. His smile turned into a frown when he noticed the serious expressions on their faces.

"Guys, what is it? Did something happen to Kate?" he asked, concerned.

"You have some nerve to ask that, writer-boy." Lanie said at the same time as Esposito and Ryan shoved him, firmly but not roughly, into the apartment and to the kitchen counter.

"What's going on?" Rick asked, a little nervous at the behavior of the others.

"You cheated on Kate!" Lanie almost shouted.

"Keep it down, will you? My daughter is sleeping upstairs."

At the mention of Alexis, Lanie's expression softened a bit and her voice went down a few decibels.

"You heard me Mister. You cheated on my best friend." Lanie said again, this time in a tone of voice that was half whisper and half shout. Esposito and Ryan looked like they were going to explode if Rick said the wrong thing.

"Am I missing something?" Rick asked, his face betraying his confusion. "Did Kate decide to start a relationship with me while I was away?"

"Don't try to change the subject."

"I'm not. I'm just completely lost about what's going on here. How did I cheat on her when we're not even together?"

"Who is Leslie?" Lanie asked with a look in her eyes that spelled murder.

"She was my guide in Perth. Why?" Rick said, still confused.

"Then why was she in your room at five in the morning?"

"What? She never was in my room at five in the morning."

"Really? Kate told me she called your phone three days ago. She did it by reflex when she got her current case. It was just after five in the morning." Lanie said, still determined to get the truth out of him.

"Wait. Three days ago?" Rick said, his face lighting up in recognition. "Yes, I got a phone call that Leslie picked up because I was changing in the bathroom and I asked her to. But that call came a few minutes after five in the afternoon. She was picking me up to drive me to the last book store I was doing a signing in for that day.

"Please guys, tell me you remember that there is a twelve hour time difference between New York and Perth?"

"Oh... Oh."Lanie said, looking at Ryan and Esposito. All three had an embarrassed look on their faces.

"Guys, why did you think I cheated on Kate?"

"Because she was severely pissed off the last few days, especially when your name was mentioned." Ryan said, speaking for all three of them.

"She was jealous?" Rick asked, giddy like a kid on christmas.

"Yes, she was." Lanie said. "But she denies it of course."

"Of course. But guys, want to have a little fun with her?"

"I don't know man, she gets really annoyed when someone makes fun of her." Ryan said, concerned.

"We're not making fun. Just don't tell her about this meeting here. I want to see if she says something by herself."

All of them agreed and left the loft with Rick smiling to herself. Tomorrow could be a fun day. Or a very painful one.

* * *

Rick strolled into the precinct, with the usual two cups of coffee. He said hello to the guys and set the cup on Kate's desk. Said detective was nowhere to be seen.

"Guys, where's Beckett?" he asked.

"At the gym. Blowing off some steam, I guess." Ryan answered him.

Rick just shrugged and sat down on the edge of Kate's desk, taking the current case file and reading it and the information on the murder board. It took him less than a minute to find something odd. Before he could mention something to the guys, he heard a female voice.

"You're back I see. And you're still taking things from my desk."

"Hello to you too, detective. Just bringing myself up to speed."

"Right. I'm astonished you're even here. I was under the impression you got little sleep down under." Kate said, unable to keep the scorn out of her voice.

"Whatever do you mean, detective?" Rick asked, his voice and face a mask of innocence.

"You know what I mean."

"I really don't. I spent my days in different book stores, that's true, but I always got enough sleep."

"I'm sure you did, and I'm sure someone made sure you slept well."

"Why detective, do I detect jealousy in your voice?"

"In your dreams, Castle."

"Don't try to fool yourself, you're totally jealous."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"Not."

"Are."

"Not."

"Are."

"I AM NOT JEALOUS!" Kate yelled, finally losing her patience. Seeing every face turned to her in shock, she realized what she just did and hid her head in her hands.

"I think it's cute." Rick said in a low voice.

"What?" Kate said, her head snapping up to look at him.

"You're cute when you're jealous. I bet if I had been in New York, you would have shown up at the book store to see who I was with and then marked you place at my side by sitting close to me, waiting for me to finish before taking me home, never letting me out of your sight."

During his short speech, Castle had come closer and closer to Kate, his voice getting lower and lower to what Kate started to call the "sexy region" and it made her stomach flutter in anticipation and need. Before anything else could happen, Rick sat up again.

"As I said, it's cute that you were jealous of my tour guide, who happened to be female in the last town and who was picking me up for my latest signing at, and I have to emphasize that, just after five in the afternoon, because of a certain time difference."

Kate looked pretty embarrassed by now and was getting furious with the way Rick smiled at her. Rick, noticing her mood, quickly changed the topic.

"But back to the case. I was wondering, why was he handcuffed?"

"Because someone wanted to restrain him before he or she put an overdose of heroin into his body."

"But, according to the case file, the amount of heroin he had in his body combined with the fact that it was injected directly into the carotid would mean he either died in under a minute after receiving the injection or he was at least passed out. That amount of drugs completely overloads your brain.

"So, if someone wanted to kill him that way, why not just drug him and hold him for a few seconds until it kicks in? Why go through the trouble of binding and gagging someone. Also, the victim has no defensive wounds on his body. If someone manhandled me, I would at least fight back somehow."

At first dismissing his theory as yet another wild thing, Kate's attention perked up after he finished his explanation. How could she have not seen this?

"But what happened then? Did he just sit here, getting bound and gagged or was he killed before?"

"If he was killed before, then he would have marks on his body where the killer had to grab him to prop him up in the chair. Lifting a dead weight causes marks on the body."

"Then this case has become even more complicated now. We have no suspect, no motive and no point of entry."

"What if it was a suicide?" Rick asked.

"Then he wouldn't have been tied up, wouldn't he?"

"I have an idea how to test it. Can you meet me this evening at my place?"

"Can't we do it here?" Kate asked, not trusting herself right now with being along with Rick in his home.

"Probably, but I need to leave. I have a meeting with my agent and then my publisher and that could take a while. I also want to spent some time with Alexis, before she leaves for her camping trip with her friends."

"Fine, I meet you at six."

"Perfect. Until then, Detective." Rick said and left, saying goodbye to the guys on his way out. Kate just sighed, wondering what he was up to.

* * *

The day was over way too soon and Kate found herself at Rick's door. She knocked and was let into the loft, seeing a chair propped up near the lounge with a small table next to it, which had a kitchen syringe, tape, a stop watch and handcuffs on it.

"I don't really like where this is going." Kate said after seeing the stuff on the table.

"Don't worry, you're here as an observer and time keeper." Rick said and went to sit down.

"What are you trying to prove here?" Kate asked, still confused about what he was trying to do.

"Testing a theory. And you have to get me out later." Rick answered and took the tape.

"Won't it look strange to your family, should they barge in, if you are bound to a chair while I'm next to you?"

"As I said, Alexis is on a camping trip with her friends and mother is at yet another spa treatment for the remainder of the week.

"Anyway, I was wondering about the fact that he was bound with tape at his feet and mouth but his hands were cuffed. Also, the needle mark went into the exact point where it had to be. A regular person wouldn't know where to jam the needle in and how far to hit the carotid artery without either piercing completely through it or missing it.

"Also, before you got here I was online, trying to find something out about the victim using the university website. Turns out our victim wasn't only a good runner, he was a terrific runner. He particularly excelled at the 5k and 10k distances. His times were consistently on par with the african runners.

"So, we have a young man who is pressured by his parents to do something absolutely loathes while being told to forget about the things he loves. Combine that with the fact that didn't have real friends and you get a motive for suicide." Rick finishes, while starting to bind his feet to the chair with the tape.

Kate had become so engrossed in Rick's spinning of the tale that she almost missed what he was doing.

"So then why was he bound?"

"I think, he did it himself. He wanted to end his life but didn't want to embarrass the family by committing an obvious suicide. If he made it look like a murder, his parents could blame the unknown murderer."

"And they would blame the police for not finding him."

"I believe young mister Blake didn't think that part through. He probably thought that whoever investigated the case would close it after a week or two for lack of leads. Because there aren't any leads that point to the killer as another person."

Rick finished binding the first leg and started on the second.

"What he most likely also didn't think through was the fact that his case would be investigated by New Yorks very best homicide detective team, along with their brilliant, charming and unbelievably ruggedly handsome mystery writer tag-along."

"Yeah right." Kate scoffed, inwardly smiling at him.

"Ok, I'm done with my legs. Now to the test. You take the stop watch. On my mark you start the timer and I will mock-inject me with these non-existent drugs in that empty syringe. When I'm done with that I will try to handcuff myself. If I make it in way under a minute, it's proof that this was a suicide."

"Wait, you want to make it authentic, right?"

"Of course."

"Well then." Kate said, took a piece of tape and put it on his mouth.

"Mmmmmm, mmmm mmm mmm." Rick mumbled into the tape.

"Oh don't worry. I will take the tape off later. Maybe. And very slowly." Kate said, giving him a wicked grin. "Just mark the start of the timer with your feet, just stamp three times, I will start on three."

Rick tapped his foot three times and Kate started the timer. He took the syringe, held it against is throat and mimicked injecting himself. Quickly putting the syringe back on the table the took the handcuffs, closed it on one wrist and put his arms behind bis back. After a short fumbling, he managed to cuff his other wrist as well and Kate stopped the timer.

"38 seconds. Not bad. I think your theory may be true."

"Mhm mhm." Rick only mumbled from behind the tape.

"Well, that's it then. I'll go home for a good nights sleep." Kate said, stoop up and made her way to the door.

"Mhmmm mmmhmm mmhmm." Rick started mumbling, getting agitated.

"What? You want me to put out the lights when I go? Ok, if you say so."

"Mhmmmm mmmmmmhmm."

"Fine. I will get you out, but I want dinner for it."

Rick nodded his head enthusiastically and sighed in relief when Kate came back towards him.

"But before, I'm getting a little more comfortable." she said and proceeded to slowly unbutton her dress shirt. Rick's eyes bulged out more and more with every button that was undone until they nearly fell out of their sockets when Kate took the shirt off to reveal the tightest tank top he had ever seen.

Kate only smiled to herself. The top was so tight that she couldn't wear a bra, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Rick. Getting very close to him, she bent down, knowing exactly where his eyes were going as she did this and then yanked the tape off his mouth, earning a yelp of pain from him.

"That was for you stunt earlier."

"What stunt?" he asked, relieved to have speech back.

"Insinuating I was jealous."

"Fine, you weren't jealous." he said, waiting until Kate took the handcuffs off before he freed himself from the tape on his ankles.

"Ok, you were angry at me because a woman answered my phone and you possibly were angry at the woman even though you don't even know her. In my book, that's jealousy."

"So what if I was a little jealous. I thought, someone else took my partner or my partner found another muse. And why are you smiling?"

"You just admitted that I'm your partner, not just a shadow. And you also admitted that you don't want to lose me and that you don't want to stop being my muse."

"Fine. I was jealous. It's not a big deal."

"Oh, it is so a big deal. Not only that but you practically forced me to have dinner with you. Which by the way, we will cook together."

"Why? I'm your guest."

"A guest who wanted to leave me bound and gagged. In other circumstances I would find that hot and alluring but not when my family is out of town."

"Ok. What do you want me to do?"

"You prepare the salad and set the table, I will make the pasta and prepare the bread. In my wine rack, top shelf, second bottle from the right, it's an amazing vintage perfect for this meal. You can get that too."

And so they went. The whole scene was amazingly domestic and both moved through the kitchen together as if they have done that for years. Not once was there an awkward moment and both took notice of that.

The dinner of course was delicious. Rick never held back when it came to whining a dining someone. And true to his word, the wine was an excellent addition to it. So excellent, that Kate almost drank the entire bottle by herself.

"I might be a bit tipsy right now." she commented after flopping down on his couch while Rick cleaned the table.

"Stay here for the night. You can use the guest room." he said.

"What? No attempt to lure me into your bedroom?"

"Why detective Beckett, do I hear disappointment in your voice?"

"Well, kind of. I always thought you'd jump at the chance. Don't you want to ravish this body?" she asked, moving her hands in a very sensual fashion over her entire body.

"Of course I do." he stated.

The manner in which he said that took her by surprise. He didn't stutter or tried to make some excuses about how that isn't what he wants to do. Just a simple and plain 'yes' without preamble. Still, he didn't make a move. For some reason that made him even more sexy to her.

"Come on." she said, taking his hand and pulling him up.

"What are you doing?"

"I have some jealously issues I have to take care of. And you will help me. And tomorrow, there won't be any doubt anymore."

She didn't say anything more as she led him into his bedroom. For the next two hours, only muffled moans could be heard from inside, accompanied by the occasional yelp.

* * *

**A/N: Another one of my brain farts :D - A 5000 word brain fart. Maybe I should see a doctor...**

**Review please.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I played poker with Andrew Marlowe for the rights to Castle. And I lost. Dammit. But there's always tomorrow.**

**Warning: This one is rated M, some very descriptive scenarios and a few expletives. Other than that, enjoy :)**

* * *

**Partners with Benefits?**

The first time had been a bad idea. It was born out of desperation, after a very tough case that left Kate emotionally drained. Both she and Castle faced a murderer with a fetish for cutting peoples ears and noses off. After the murderer was apprehended, Kate went home and after only a few minutes she didn't want to me alone anymore.

More on a whim than with good thinking through she went to Castle. After he let her in, she just hugged him for minutes until finally taking him to his bedroom and getting the emotional release she needed. She left right after, spending the rest of the night in her own bed, the next day feeling refreshed and satisfied.

They didn't talk during the night.

They didn't talk about it later.

They just kept working as usual.

But their relationship had irrevocably changed.

* * *

That first night set a pattern both were fine with. After another hard case, she went to his home again and both used each other for emotional release. Again she went home right after and slept soundly.

Again they didn't talk during the night.

Again they didn't talk about it later.

They just went back to work the next day and continued solving cases.

After six weeks, she visited him after each case, even if they were open and shut cases or not very troubling. Not that any murder wasn't troubling on some level.

But Rick didn't question it. He wanted to be there for her. And if she wanted his help to be with his body and his abilities in bed, he would give it to her. For a while he felt upset that she always left right after but he realized that it was just who Kate was.

After three months of infrequent visits by Kate, their rhythm changed. Now it had become a habit for them to meet during the night to have sex. It wasn't only after cases anymore that she came to him. She was with him almost every night, both enjoying the feeling of their bodies grinding against the other.

It was a strange arrangement to be sure. Where other cops went to a bar for an few after-shift drinks, he and Kate met for after-shift sex. But both were fine with it and what neither told the other, both wouldn't change a thing.

At first that gave Rick some heat with his family. But after a heart to heart talk between Kate and his daughter and mother as to why she was there, both accepted Kate's presence in their home. Neither told Rick exactly what was spoken about.

Others got suspicious about them. After weeks of Kate being just irritated by Castle's present at the precinct, suddenly she was fine with it, joking with him, flirting with him and sometimes touching him. She even made him coffee, something that was unheard of among her colleagues.

Lanie suspected something. She noticed Kate's glow after one particular night filled with lots of moans and groans and way to little sleep. But Kate didn't offer up any information and Lanie was too fixated on Kate herself than to suspect Castle who was standing right beside Kate with a pokerface that didn't give up anything that showed him to be Kate's pressure outlet.

* * *

Kate always pushed them to pretend nothing was going on. And that meant she had to endure him being sometimes fondled by overeager dates his publisher arranged for book parties, signings or other social engagements he had to do.

But then there was an unexpected visit from his ex-wife and a subsequent one-night-stand that he, in his words, "couldn't get out of without telling her that he was sleeping with his muse". He tried to explain it. That he did it as fast as he could so his ex would leave as soon as possible.

She wanted to be angry. Hell, she was angry. But she didn't exactly know why. They weren't together. They were using each other as pressure valves. But she couldn't bear the fact that he did it with another woman. Even if the other woman was the mother of his daughter.

Meredith left the same day, having been lured away by a role in a small movie that Rick himself set up to get rid of her. Kate went to him, her face betraying her feelings of rage and, strangely enough, lust.

That was the night they had their first angry sex. It was wild, messy and he had to wear long sleeves and high collars for several days. It was also extremely satisfying.

* * *

Six months after their first night, their arrangement completely changed. Usually it was Kate going to Castle, practically using his body for pleasure and leaving. Or using his body for pleasure and spending the rest of the night.

Their other colleagues started to suspect something as well. All noticed the changed behavior of the two with each other. They usually left together. They often arrived together. After a night of poker, she stayed behind when all left to "help clean up".

But she was the one using and he was the one being used. And that meant she was on top. Exclusively. Whenever they met for the night, she turned him around after the foreplay, sat on top and rode him until she climaxed. Then usually she climaxed again. And again. And then he climaxed too and their session was over. He went to sleep and she went home. Or she fell asleep beside him.

And he was completely fine with that. Because there are worse things in the world than having Kate Beckett on top of him, her face contorted in pleasure, riding him with wild abandon.

It took the re-appearance of Will Sorenson to change that.

* * *

Kate and Will had a history. They were dating once. She even was in love with him. But he chose a job before Kate and left. But now he was back and requested Kate's help with a case that had nothing to do with her department. Everybody could see why he wanted her help. Even Castle could see it. And he couldn't do anything about it.

But he could help solving the case quickly. And that he did. Using his experience with his own daughter and favorite toys, he found out that the kidnapper was someone close to them. A day later they found the little girl and her mother as the instigator.

And then Castle witnessed Will kissing Kate. His Kate! He left seething, went to the gym and punished a punching bag for an hour before collapsing in exhaustion. He didn't know that Kate didn't feel anything from that kiss. No repressed feelings came back. No arousal was spiked. Because Kate's feelings unknowingly revolved around only one man. And this man and his sexual skills had, still unknowingly to her, ruined her for all other men.

* * *

That night, Kate didn't visit Rick. She wanted to. She was planning to. But he beat her to it. He knocked on her door and after being let in, he shut the door, grabbed Kate and kissed her roughly. He touched every part of her body, all the while his tongue punished her mouth. Her moans betrayed any notion that she was uncomfortable with it.

She was about to push him into the bedroom to do what they had done almost every day for the last six months but this time he had other ideas. He practically ripped her clothes off, earning a smile from her at his impatience, with her still not knowing what he was about to do. He quickly undressed as well.

But instead of getting into her bed, he just spun her around and pushed her against the wall. He grabbed around her and rubbed her until she was soaking wet and even climaxed for the first time that night. Little did she know that his was the first of many orgasms she was about to receive. It was also the first time he spoke since he entered her place.

"I'm going to make you scream. I will mark you as mine and you will always be mine."

He spread her legs and roughly entered her from behind, pushing his length in to the hilt and not waiting for her to get used to his girth. He started pounding her ferociously, making her climax in under a minute but not letting her come down from her high and continued to pound her. Kate knew what was in store for her when the angle allowed him to hit her g-spot with every thrust. And again. And again. And again.

And scream she did. She tried not to. But she couldn't stop herself. There were so many endorphins rushing through her body, anything else then screams of pleasure were incapable of leaving her mouth. Sometimes words of affirmation came out with the screams. And expletives. And appeals to higher beings. Sometimes all of those combined. But she screamed.

She screamed after her second orgasm of the night. And her third. And her fourth. And her fifth. And all the while, he pounded her from behind in an upwards angle, so hard that she was lifted a few inches into the air with every thrust he did. The speed of his ministrations made him thrust in just as she was falling down from the thrust before, ramming it into her and always...always hitting the one spot that made her squeal.

After 14 minutes and 36 seconds, just after her seventh orgasm of the night, he released as well. Grunting and panting hard, he pulled out and held Kate up before she could collapse to the floor, her legs momentarily unable to hold her own weight.

He led her to the bathroom, showered with her and got her a glass of water. After a short while, he was beginning to get ready again. He wasn't done by a long shot.

Leading her to the bed, she wanted to sit down on it but he had other plans. Sitting her down on the floor on a little foot stool with her back to the bed he saw the confused look on her face. A look that turned into understanding and a bit of worry when he stood right in front of her, her head directly in front of his crotch. That was the second time he spoke that night.

"If it gets too much, hit me on my body three times. I will stop immediately."

That sentence lit a fire inside Kate. Despite the fact that this night was all about him, he was still considerate about her. He wanted to mark her, make her his, prove that he was the one for her and any other was nothing but he never would hurt her intentionally.

More thoughts were pushed out of Kate's mind, when he grabbed her head with one hand and his length with the other and brought both close together. Whatever her doubts were, her mouth opened automatically, taking him in. He started thrusting in and out, every thrust going deeper and deeper into her mouth. He did it slowly, giving her mouth the chance to get used to him. Not that it would ever be possible. He was simply to huge.

His thrust became faster and deeper, the tip starting to reach her throat. Experiencing a moment of panic, she quickly tapped his leg three times and true to his word he pulled out with a concerned look on his face.

She quickly shook her head, indicating that he didn't do anything wrong. She repositioned herself, getting more comfortable on the floor, slightly bending her head back and grabbed his length, bringing him closer again. Taking him in again, she put her hands on his cheeks and pushed him forward, making him push inside her all the way and holding him there for a few seconds to suppress the gag reflex and getting used to his girth as much as possible before placing her hands to his hips and allowing him to thrust again.

And thrust he did. It was the strangest feeling for Kate. Here she sat on her floor, getting, for the lack of a better word, mouth fucked by something the comparative size of a python and loving every second of it. She was completely submissive in this instance, only using her tongue to make the experience even better for him and her hands by indicating her willingness to let him push as far in as he wants.

It took him close to 11 minutes to release again. When that happened, he pushed inside, holding it in to he hilt and his hands on her head, stopping any notion of her moving her head back. The only movement made was the twitching of his tip and the movement of her throat when she swallowed what he unloaded.

After a few more seconds he pulled out and got her a bottle of water before going into the kitchen to prepare some food. Strangely enough she already missed the physical contact. She had given him blowjobs before but it was never like this, it was always him on his back and her in control. This had been completely different, she had been totally at his mercy and he used his control to his maximum advantage, after a little encouragement. And she was fine with it. And she wanted it to happen again.

* * *

After a light dinner of some leftover thai food, he pushed her back into the bedroom. He still wasn't done with her although the anger had mostly evaporated. But he still turned her around on her stomach, lifted her ass up and entered her again at the same angle as before when he did her against the wall.

And he hit her spot again. And again. And again. And again she climaxed in under a minute without him stopping. He took his time with her now. Thrusting slower than last time, thinking about something non-sexy, he prolonged the time with her before his own release. 23 minutes of relentless, steady pounding, he only sounds reverberating through the room his grunts, her moans and screams of pleasure and the unmistakable slapping of skin on skin before he couldn't hold it in any longer, releasing violently into her before collapsing onto her back.

Kate had had her head on her arms and had been screaming into her pillow almost constantly the whole time. She knew from experience that Rick was good in bed but what he did to her this night was out of this world. During the last session she climaxed fourteen times. Now Rick way lying on her back for two minutes already and she was still having the occasional aftershock from the last climax she got when he came with her. And having him still inside her didn't help.

With a grunt, he pulled out and helped her up, knowing that she wasn't able to move on her own yet. He half led and half carried her to the bathroom, taking another shower with her before getting into bed again and pulling the covers over their naked bodies. Like a moth to the flame, Kate felt herself drawn to him, pushing her back against his body and putting his arm around her stomach before falling asleep with a satisfied sigh.

* * *

She got about two hours of sleep before she jerked awake. Comparing all the ways she had been woken up before, this was the best. It wasn't a phone call, calling her to a crime scene. It wasn't her alarm clock, yanking her out at 5:30 in the morning. It wasn't the sounds of the city. This time, she was awakened by an orgasm, courtesy of the head between her legs and the tongue on her clit that was roughly licking her.

Knowing she was awake by the clenching of her thighs and the gasp coming out of her mouth, he lifted his head, climbed on top of her and lifted and bend her legs at her hips to rest them next to her head before entering her in one swift motion and starting to pound her again. And the angle of entry made him hit her spot again and again and again.

And again she screamed his name. A lot.

And soon both were asleep again in each others arms, her body snuggled closely to his, clinging to him as if letting go would make him disappear.

She was woken up by him twice more during the night and each time it ended with her screaming his name and invoking a higher being that she didn't even believe in.

* * *

In the morning, she was woken up by a smell of pancakes and coffee. Making her way into the kitchen, both enjoyed a healthy breakfast before Rick deeply kissed her goodbye and left. He wasn't even gone for five minutes before she already missed his presence.

She knew why he did what he did. She knew the reason for last night. All it took was a kiss from her ex that meant nothing to her. And he was right. She was his. No other man could ever again compare to what he did to her. And it wasn't just the sex which was beyond amazing. It was the little things as well. His caring. The way he cooked for her. The way he brought her coffee every morning. The way he put her happiness before of his.

This all had started as a way to de-stress. A way to release pent up emotions. But during the last three months it had become more. There hadn't been a day without physical contact. She had feelings for that man she didn't voice because she didn't really understand them.

Everybody who knew her could see it. Lanie definitely saw it. The boys knew something was going on. They knew there was someone in her life. Because, as Lanie put it during one girls night out, she actually looked happy. And she gave every man who tried to flirt with her in the bar the coldest shoulder ever.

Kate didn't say goodbye to Rick this morning, at least not with words. Not that she didn't want to. But she was physically incapable of producing a word.

This day, she called in sick, claiming laryngitis. The fact that she could only whisper because of her sore throat helped convince Captain Montgomery to give her the rest of the week off. But she never told anyone that her throat was sore from all the screaming she did. She also didn't tell anyone that she couldn't have left her home anyway because she was sore all over her body.

But still she sat down on her couch, watched TV and smiled at the thoughts of last night. Every time she went to the bathroom she stumbled slightly, her legs still not quite able to hold her up. The area between her legs was sore but she loved it. She had marks on her body where he bit her. Thankfully enough, he had refrained from giving her a hickey on her neck.

And so she went back to her couch with a hot chocolate, enjoying the afterglow of a wild night, smiling brightly at no one, with a movie running that she didn't really watch because her thoughts were fixated on the man that she, still unknowing to her, was slowly but surely falling in love with.

* * *

Another year went by. They had fights and made up passionately. They had cases which caused more venting of pressure. They had each faced death and had nights that were solely for affirming each others survival. But then came the case that brought the latest turn in their relationship.

It started when a young girl was found murdered. She had red hair and blue eyes. Seeing her body, Rick almost threw up because she looked like his daughter. And every time they found another body, looking the same, Rick became more and more fearful because his little girl fit exactly into the killers preferred targets.

Some of the victims had been raped. That it happened after they were killed was little solace to everyone working the case. It just made them more angry at the killer. At least they had witnesses now and a sketch of the murderer whose face had become the most looked for in all of New York City.

Digging into the background of the victims, they found out that the killer contacted the girls before he killed them, leaving remarks, comments and later threats on facebook pages or other forms of social media. Unfortunately the account was a fake, the name made up. Tracing back the IP led to nowhere as the comments were made after the killer logged in to wireless networks from different parts of the city, making it untraceable.

It was the first time in 18 months that Rick and Kate didn't spent the nights in each others company. He was way too distraught for that. And his desperation and fear grew when his daughter received her first threat on her own facebook page.

Kate had to take him off the case, he got to close to it. And he didn't argue since he was determined to spent every second in his daughters presence which created friction between them more than once.

After another week of frantic searches and several more threats that promised that the end was nigh for Alexis, Kate and the boys went to visit Castle. Kate knew that it wouldn't lead to a passionate night but they wanted to offer comfort to him and his little girl.

All were more than surprised when they got off the elevator and saw that the door to his loft was open. They got anxious when she heard a female cry from inside, a crash of crockery, followed by a male roar that was filled so much with outrage and desperation that it made Kate's skin crawl and her hair standing up.

Before either of them could get out a gun and enter the loft, the large form of the man they came to see flew through the open door into the hallway. He had a smaller body lifted in front of him which he rammed into the adjacent wall, cracking the plaster and started to punch it repeatedly. Neither of them had ever seen anything like this, Richard Castle in the throes of rage, violently beating someone up. It took both the boys a few minutes to pry the large form of Rick off the young man and when they did, Kate noticed the knifes on the floor.

* * *

The name of the suspect was Jake Morgan, he was 18 years old and a very meek individual. He had become tired of waiting for his intended victim to come out so he decided to pay his target a visit while her dad, who was known to work with the police, should have been at work. What he didn't think of was that a very dedicated father had vowed to protect his little girl and therefore never left her out of his vicinity.

So when Jake Morgan went through the maintenance entrance of Rick's building and broke open the door to the loft, he saw his target in the kitchen, drying off dishes. When she turned around and screamed, it was nothing new. What he didn't expect was the very large man running out of the adjacent office, tackling him and ramming him into the wall before pummeling him into unconsciousness. He didn't notice the three detectives that inadvertently saved his life by pulling the guy from him because Rick would surely have beaten him to death in his rage.

A search of Jake Morgan's apartment brought up a collection of knifes, all with traces of blood left on them. They had a murder weapon for every murder he committed. Jake Morgan was going to prison and never coming out again.

The trial only took two days. The judge, who happened to be Judge Markway, dismissed Jake Morgan's initial complain about police brutality because Rick wasn't police and he was defending his daughter in his own home. The jury quickly found him guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison for multiple homicides.

The prison director, who was a fan of Richard Castle put him into a cell together with two more inmates who were fans of Richard Castle and he let them know who their new roommate was and what he did. Jake Morgan would never have a quiet day in his life again.

* * *

A few days after the trial, Kate went to Rick again. It would be the first time of being together after almost a month. And Kate, despite knowing why they couldn't get together, had deeply missed him and his companionship.

After a delicious dinner with his family, Martha excused herself to a date and Alexis went upstairs to sleep. Both Rick and Kate shared few words as they drank a few glasses of wine before Kate took his hand and led him to his bedroom. This night would be different than the others.

This night, for the first time in 18 months, they made love.

Passionate love.

It wasn't quick, it wasn't dirty, it wasn't a showing of dominance and a way to release some steam. It was slow, deliberate, giving. They took their time. And after three hours, both went to sleep, satisfied not only in body but also in soul.

* * *

Neither had said those three magic words. They didn't need to. Their actions spoke volumes. Each touch or each look into the others eyes conveyed more emotions than words could ever express. It was clear to anyone who understood body language. They were two people deeply in love.

It was shown by the way they looked at each other. The way their bodies slightly touched when they stood before the murder board. The way their fingers lingered when they passed coffee cups or case files to each other. The way they stood closer together at crime scenes.

Lanie found out the first day they came to the morgue after their first night of making love. She again noticed Kate's glow but she also notices Castle's eyes and the closeness of their bodies. She told them as much and both confirmed it, making her swear to keep it to herself. It wasn't too much of a shock to Lanie when she entered the morgue one morning and found the two making out in her office, because they "got bored waiting for her".

The boys found out in a rather embarrassing way. They called Kate to a crime scene one morning and when she forgot to properly hang up, the boys couldn't help but overhear them finishing their "morning exercise".

Captain Montgomery apparently knew about them already. One day he called them into his office to tell them he knew from the start but chose to keep quiet because it "wasn't his place to judge their personal life" and "it made them better at solving cases". And he wasn't a stickler to regulations.

They had evolved from partners in work to partners with benefits.

So it wasn't a surprise for anyone when one day Kate Beckett entered the precinct with a three carat diamond ring with sapphires on each side on her left ring finger. Lanie had always believed it from day one when Richard Castle walked into their lifes.

Richard Castle and Kate Beckett finally had become partners in life.

* * *

**A/N: I got the idea for this one yesterday after being invited to a female co-workers place and being roped into watching Friends With Benefits. Not really my type of movie to enjoy. But it goes to show that males will do almost anything to get lucky. You women out there should appreciate that :D**

**Review please**


	9. Chapter 9

**This one goes out to Soprano009 who requested that Kate should be the recipient of a bit of Lanie-rage. I hope you guys like it.**

**Disclaimer: Bla bla bla. Castle not mine. Bla bla bla.**

* * *

"Castle, what are you doing here bro?" Esposito asked him, when Castle stepped out of the elevator. "Beckett has the day off, you know that."

"I know, I had a meeting with my publisher this morning and was in the neighborhood and I thought I bring you guys some lunch." Castle said, holding up two bags from Remy's, full of burgers , fries and shakes.

"Thanks man, you're a saint." Ryan said and took the bags into the break room.

Castle had no intention of eating with the guys. He wanted to invite Kate for a private lunch. Since her shooting and her subsequent absence both had gotten closer again. She had claimed to not remember what happened but by her actions and words he could understand that the claim hadn't been entirely true. She told him in different words that she needed time and he was willing to wait for her as long as she needed.

He took out his phone and called the number two on his speed dial, number one being his daughter of course. He expected to hear the lovely voice of the woman he loved but what answered the call was anything but that.

"Kate Beckett's phone, Jacob speaking."

"Who is this? Where is Kate?"

"I'm Jacob. Kate is currently unavailable. Want me to take a message?"

"No it's fine. I'll call her later." he said and hung up. "Maybe."

"Well, enjoy the food but I can't stay, have to be somewhere." Castle said to the boys and left, surprising them with the abruptness of his departure and the sudden distraught look on his face, making them wonder what that phone call was all about.

* * *

The next day, Kate was sitting at her desk again, doing the mountain of paperwork that had accumulated over the last two weeks. No murders hat taken place during the last two days for which she was thankful.

Castle got into the precinct and placed a cup of coffee in front of Kate who took it with a smile. Sitting down next to her, he watched her doing paperwork for a while until he couldn't take it anymore.

"So, I called you yesterday." he began.

"When?"

"Around noon. Wanted to ask you if you wanted to go to lunch. Some guy named Jacob answered your phone. Who is he?" Castle asked, unable to hide the jealousy in his voice.

_'Time to have a little fun'_ Kate thought before answering. "He's the new man in my life." she said with a smile that was completely sincere, because she pictured the man in front of her as the one in her life. "He makes me happy and he is so considerate and caring."

Before she could say anything more, Castle's phone beeped. Secretly, Kate was relieved that she was interrupted because she didn't feel she could have pretended to be happy anymore, while the man she actually wanted to be with but couldn't bring herself to tell him sat in front of her.

"Sorry I have to get this." he said and went into the break room, getting a look from the guys when they saw the devastated expression on his face.

* * *

He had been talking on the phone for five minutes behind the closed door of the break room. Kate had seen his face go from distress to happy and hoped everything was okay. Then the call seemed to be done and he came out again.

"Well, I have to head home. My daughter and I have plans. Goodbye." he said and left. Kate and the boys looked at each other because the way he said the last word had a final ring to it.

"What's going on?" Ryan asked Kate.

"Honestly I have no idea." she said, looking at the elevator as if hoping he would step out and taking another sip of her coffee. Little did she know that this cup of coffee could have been her last.

* * *

"Morning Lanie, what have we got?" Kate asked the ME who was bend over the corpse that was sitting on a chair in the small apartment she had been called to.

It was a gruesome sight. Blood was pooled on the floor and spattered on the walls. Evidence bags filled with white powder and what looked little blackened sausages were lying on the bed.

"Male victim, no identification on him. His teeth had been pulled out and his fingers cut off." Lanie explained and pointed to the evidence bags. "His teeth had been ground to powder and his fingers burned to a crisp do destroy the prints."

"So, no way of identification by fingerprints or dental records." Kate concluded.

"Right. So if he wasn't some sort of government official, he wouldn't have a DNA record somewhere. That would be the only way of identification now." Lanie said before looking at Kate.

"Where's Castle?" Ryan asked who had come over.

"I don't know. He didn't answer his phone when I called him." Kate answered. She didn't tell Kevin that she tried four times to call Castle.

"Have any of the neighbors seen or heard something?" Kate asked, bringing their attention back to the case.

"There aren't any neighbors. This building had been abandoned a year ago after a few cases of small pox broke out in here. The only one we found is a squatter two floors down, who unfortunately still has a blood alcohol level that borders on toxic so he isn't any help."

"Damn. Ok, lets finish up here and get back to the precinct. Lets try to see what we can figure out."

* * *

It turned out they didn't find out much. They had a nameless victim who had been apparently tortured to death, no means of identifying him. Lanie's autopsy report only said that he cause of death was blood loss due to an pierced jugular vein. That meant they could only do some paperwork until hopefully the canvas turned some details up. Or until someone who missed the victim turned in a missing persons report.

She tried calling Castle again but again the phone went to voice mail after two rings. Wondering what he was doing, she sighed and went to the break room to wrestle with the espresso machine. She never quite got around to learn how to use it since Castle had usually made her coffee.

And she missed the coffee he brought every morning. It had only been two days since he left abruptly and she already missed him. It wasn't like him to just stop communicating with her. Maybe, if her time allowed it, she would pay him a visit at his home.

* * *

After a week, the case was going nowhere, nobody had put out a missing persons report and no new leads were found. DNA testing only concluded that the victim didn't have any DNA in any database.

All this time Kate still hadn't had any contact with Castle. When she tried to visit him, every day for the last six days, there was never anyone home. Calling him got her only his voice mail. Not knowing what else to do, she called Lanie.

"Hey girlfriend, what's up?" the cheery voice of the ME said to her.

"Lanie, had you had any contact with Castle? I haven't heard from him in a week and I'm getting concerned." she said, her voice confirming the truth of her statement.

"No I haven't. Don't have much reason to call him."

"That's true. Has Alexis said anything to you?"

"Alexis isn't here. She's on a college tour for a week now. Hey, maybe writer-boy went with her." Lanie suggested.

"Yes, maybe." Kate said, thinking it over. "But that doesn't explain why he never answers his phone."

"Well, maybe you always call him at inopportune times."

"I don't know. I always thought things were getting better between us and now I feel like he just stepped out of my life. What if he got tired of waiting?"

"Don't jump to conclusions Kate. Listen, I will try calling him and I will tell the boys the same. Maybe on of us gets into contact with him."

"Thanks Lanie. See you tomorrow."

Kate hung up the phone and leaned back into her couch with a sigh. What had happened?

* * *

"Castle." came the voice out of the speaker. Ryan, Esposito and Lanie shared a surprised look. They got him on the phone on the first attempt. And he sounded very tired.

"Castle, it's us. Me, Javi and Lanie." Ryan said. "Did we wake you up? It's only just after eight."

"As a matter of fact, yes. It's two am here."

"Writer-boy, where are you?" Lanie asked.

"Switzerland. Finished the college tour with Alexis, left my mother there, cause she got a small role in an independent film and I decided to spend two weeks skiing with my daughter."

"We were wondering why you dropped off the radar. And Beckett is concerned about you because you never answer her calls."

"And I probably won't answer her calls in the foreseeable future. I've had enough."

The flat statement let them all pause.

"What the hell, bro? What happened between you two?" Espo asked.

"I'm tired of her antics, Javi. You all know how I feel about her. And what does she do? All that crap about her walls that prevent her from a relationship and she tells me flat out that she has a new man, some Jacob, in her life who makes her happy.

"I can't do it anymore, guys. Demming was hard enough. Josh was hard enough. But now she did it again. She got her third strike in my eyes. Enough is enough. I'm done. I just hope you guys won't hold it against me and continue to be my friends."

Without waiting for an answer, Castle hung up. The group looked at each other and all let out a collective sigh. Over the years, Castle had become one of their best friends. And as much as they all treated Kate as their sibling, stringing someone along without letting him ever get close was something you just don't do.

"Damn. I never thought it would come to this. Mom and Dad not speaking to each other anymore." Ryan said, leaning back and taking a sip of his beer.

"Well, Kate will have much to explain." Lanie said and stomped off.

"Wow, Beckett's in trouble." Javi said to Kevin, and drank his beer as well.

* * *

Kate was about to get ready for bed after a lonely dinner of chinese food when she heard a furious knocking on her door. Opening it, she saw a very angry Lanie standing in the doorway.

"Hey Lanie. What's wrong?"

"Don't you 'Hey Lanie' me, girl. What do you think you're doing?" Lanie shouted and pushed Kate into the apartment.

"Excuse me?" Kate asked, still confused about what was going on.

"You know, over the years me and the guys have really grown to like Castle. He is funny, smart and his thinking helped a lot in solving cases. And he's good for you. And despite everything the press says about him, he is a caring and devoted man who would do anything for the people he loves. And we all know that he is crazy about you. Not crazy in a I-want-her-for-one-night kind of way but in a I-want-her-for-the-rest-of-life kind of way.

"He stood by while you paraded Motorcycle-boy in front of him. He saved your life more often than I can count. He tried everything to help you with you mothers case. He was with you through everything, was always there for you. He agreed to wait for you until you got your head out of your ass.

"And how do you reward him? You get yet another guy and rub it in his face that he is such an oh-so-great guy. No wonder Castle left. You know what he told us? He has enough. He won't be back. He won't take your calls, so you can stop trying to contact him. And as much as I love you as a friend, he is right.

"I can't really look at you right now. I see you next time I have one of your bodies on my table. Goodbye Detective Beckett."

After finishing her icy monologue, Lanie stormed out and slammed the door with a loud bang, not giving Kate time to say something and also not seeing how Kate crumpled onto the couch and started crying.

* * *

The next two weeks were a special kind of hell for Kate. The case went nowhere for the lack of leads and the absence of new cases for her team meant she had to continue to work on it. Espo and Ryan only spoke to her when it was absolutely necessary, they too were angry with her at what she did and didn't want to listen to any explanations.

And true to her word, Lanie gave her the silent treatment. When she visited her one day in the morgue, Kate was greeted with a curt "Detective Beckett" and summarily dismissed when nothing of importance to a case was talked about.

She had never felt so lonely. It was as if her friends had abandoned her. Even Captain Gates felt something was amiss but chose not to interfere. Kate just hoped that at some point in the very near future the guys and Lanie would speak to her again, so she could explain.

Explain that the new guy in her life was her new neighbor who had moved in with his fiance the day before he took Castle's call on her phone because her hands were elbow deep in oil and grease while she had been working on her Harley. And the only reason she said what she said was to make Castle jealous.

* * *

The following Monday, Kate got in early and headed straight to the gym, punishing the punching bag for two hours before taking a shower and getting dressed again. Making her way back she heard a deep voice that she missed for the last three weeks. Heart pounding she went around the corner and true enough, there was Castle, large bag in hand, talking to the guys, laughing with them.

Kate was frozen in place. She wanted to run to him, apologize for the ruse and kiss him senseless. But her body wouldn't respond to her brain's command. She stood outside his view and proceeded to watch him interact with the guys. They were more open to him than to her. She listened in to their conversation.

"So then, I did a tailspin and sped down the mountain. Unfortunately I missed the tree root sticking out of the snow so I rammed it, flipped twice and landed right on my ass. When I finally reached the bottom of the hill, my pants, long underpants and boxers were completely gone in the posterior region and my cheeks were red from the friction. Luckily only a few people were down there so the embarrassment wasn't that big. Of course, Alexis had to snap a picture of me standing there with red cheeks, trying to cool them with hands full of snow while the few people around me laughed."

Despite everything, Kate couldn't suppress a smile as he talked about his mishaps. But she still couldn't move and her heart hammered in her chest.

"Well, I just came here to bring you your gifts."

"You brought us souvenirs?" Esposito asked, his face lighting up.

"I surely did. And what are the Swiss known for?"

"Chocolate and money?"

"Uh, that too, yes. But... really good watches." he said proudly and presented two small boxes. True to his word they contained two brand new watches with all the extras, calendar and compass. "They are waterproof of course, if you ever have to take a dive into the Hudson during a chase. Do you know if Lanie is in the morgue? I have a bag of premium Swiss chocolate for her."

Kate's heart sank even more as she watched them. He bought them expensive watches and got Lanie chocolate. Apparently nothing for her. She had to fight hard to hold back the tears. She watched him as he walked over to her desk and placed a small bag on her desk, lifting her heart back up again a little for his consideration. She wanted to over there and explain right now when he looked at the murder board.

"What the hell? That's William Cavill. He was killed?"

His questions finally defeated the paralysis her body had experienced the last few minutes. The boys looked at him surprised and even Captain Gates came out of her office when she heard him say the name of the so far unknown victim.

"You know this man?" Gates asked Castle.

"Hello Captain. I have something for you as well." Castle said instead of answering and gave her a box of chocolate as well.

"Thank you Mister Castle. Now, who is this man?"

"His name, or at least the name that he gave me, is William Cavill. I met him when I was doing research for one of my Derrick Storm novels. I believe he is... was either a spy or an assassin. He told me a lot about the history of assassinations and how assassins, spies and spy networks operate. I never asked him directly though because I knew I wouldn't have gotten a straight answer or he have just left."

"Detective Ryan, search all databases we have access to for William Cavill. Maybe we're lucky and it really was his real name. Mister Castle, I know we don't see eye to eye but I want your input in this case."

"Sure Captain, I would love..." Castle began but before he could finish he saw Kate who stood beside him now. "Actually, I'd prefer not to..."

Again he couldn't finish.

"Mister Castle, I believe this was an order. You have bullied me with the mayor to take you back, if you leave now, I promise you I will call the mayor and tell him you bailed. And he will bring the sky down on you."

Castle just swallowed and hung his head. "Yes, Captain."

Gates left and he was alone with Kate. Not even wanting to look at her, he focused on the still almost empty murder board.

"Rick, I need to tell you something..." Kate began before being interrupted by a shout from Ryan.

"Got something."

Castle bolted to Ryan's desk, leaving Kate sitting on the edge of hear desk, head hanging low and cursing Ryan's timing yet again before she made her way over as well.

"We're in luck. Seems he gave you his real name after all. Look at this. On this picture he is younger but it's definitely our victim." he said, pointing at the screen. Castle looked down and read.

"William James Cavill. Captain of the US Special Forces. Commendations for exemplary action in the field. First Class sniper. Holy crap, that guys really was the real deal." Castle said.

"And according to this file, he has been dead for over 15 years." Ryan concluded, still sitting in front of the computer."

"Perfect cover for a spy or an assassin. Who would suspect you if you are officially dead." Esposito plugged in.

"I go with assassin." Castle said proudly.

"Of course you are." Kate said, rolling her eyes and getting another stab in the heart when he looked away from her.

"Of course. If he was an active spy they would have classified his file. So he either worked for a real black box operation or he was an assassin, who faked his death at some point to get away from prosecution.

"Imagine this. He still is a Captain in the Special Forces. He gets an order to kill a target. Maybe he gets told that the target is a terrorist who plans a bombing of a public and crowded location in a big city. Cavill, loyal soldier that he is, obeys the order and kills the target. Later it turns out, that his target wasn't a terrorist but an upcoming politician or something who wanted to introduce laws that would have interfered with the plans or whatever someone higher up in the chain of command had."

Seeing the enraptured faces of the others, even Gates, he continues.

"Cavill, not able to have a cold murder of an innocent person on his conscience wants out. His superiors threaten him with exposure as a murderer and maybe more drastic consequences for his friends and family should he come clean. So, he fakes his own death, disappears and becomes a gun for hire.

"What he told me when I did my research with him is, that people like him are always in high demand, especially those who can to their kills clean and without much fuss.

"Ryan, check for living relatives. If you find any, check their financial records for deposits of money from an unknown contact or a trust or something similar that can't be traced to a specific person."

"On it boss. I mean, Castle. Sorry, Beckett." Ryan said, quickly digging into his work and avoiding eye contact with Kate.

"What are those financial records going to prove?" Kate asked.

"To see if this man was an assassin. As a former soldier his family would have received widow's pension. But if he wired money on a regular basis, than it's a high possibility that he was a freelance operator and people in high places knew he was still alive.

"But Captain Gates, even if we find something, I'm pretty sure we won't find a killer. This was a professional killing and whoever did it wanted to make sure nobody would find out who the victim is. Also, the killer is well versed in mutilating a body, so he probably was also a professional hitman."

"How do you figure that, Mister Castle?"

"According to the autopsy report, his fingers were hacked off. The wounds are clean cuts without any sawing marks, which means the killer had to use a heavy blade like a meat cleaver. Also he had to very exact to get through the tissue and bone in a single stroke. And then the fingers were burned to a crisp to destroy the fingerprints.

"The teeth were pulled out completely. Normally if you want to break out someone's teeth, you grab one with some pliers and yank, which would break them off. In this case, they were pulled out clean with their roots and then ground to powder no less.

"Finally, if someone monitors access to the files of people who have died to become assassins, I wouldn't be surprised if you get a phone call soon from someone very high up ordering you to stop the investigation."

"Well, lets deal with that if it comes up." Gates said.

"Ok, I'm doing a lunch run to our favorite burger shop. Anyone want something or is the usual okay?" Castle asked around.

"The usual is fine." Ryan and Esposito said at the same time.

"Ok, be right back." Castle said and headed to the elevator.

"Wait, don't you want to know what I want?" Kate shouted after him.

"I know what you want."

"I'm not so sure about that. I will go with you."

"Beckett, there's really no reason for you to..."

"I said, I will go with you." Kate said, grabbing her jacket and storming after him.

* * *

Both walked in silence towards Remy's. Castle didn't event want her around. It had been hard enough to see her again an worse, to smell the cherry scent he so loved. He didn't fool himself, he missed her terribly. But he knew that his heart wouldn't stand her being with someone else again.

Kate on her part thought about a way to approach the subject. She knew she had to apologize and make up to him but she didn't know how to lead in. Finally, she settled for blunt honesty.

"Castle, I need to tell you something."

"What? Decided on the size of the burger you will get?" he asked sarcastically.

"No, it's about Jacob."

"Kate, I don't want to know about the guys you're..."

"He's my next door neighbor and he's engaged." she quickly said, cutting him off.

It took her a second to realize that Castle had stopped walking. She turned around and took a few steps back stand before him.

"What?" he asked. "Then why did you tell me all this crap about him making you happy and so on."

"I wanted to make you jealous. It was a spur of the moment thing, like you did with me when you talked about Alexis as your date for Ryan's wedding. I wanted to explain later but you left suddenly and never took my calls."

"You could have send me a text message. I would have read it."

"I didn't think that far. I wanted to hear your voice, I wanted you back in my life. I have missed you the very next day after you left and not knowing if something had happened to you was worse than anything I have experienced the last few years. Then I learned that you took Lanie's call and talked to her and that made me feel sadder. Lanie and the guys treated me like a pariah after they found out why you left."

She stopped talking to take a breath and saw Castle simply looking at her with his piercing blue eyes.

"Please Castle... Rick, just say something."

"What about your wall? Is it still standing?"

"Yes. But I think there is a Castle-shaped hole in it." Kate said, smiled and for the first time since his return, he smiled back at her.

"Come on." he said and took her hand. "Lets get some lunch."

"Ok, but I want an appetizer before."

"And what do you want for that?"

"This." she said and kissed him. The guys would have to wait a while for their lunch.

* * *

**A/N: I know I didn't finish the case. But it was more a place holder for a little Castle wisdom only he could provide.**

**A/N2: I wanted to give a special thanks to TORONTOSUN, who takes the time to review every chapter I put out, no matter how bad it is :) Thank you.**

**Review please**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Here's the next one. Set about the end of season 2, after the events of Boom, but the rest is AU and OOC.**

**Chapter rating set to M for security, some descriptive things in there :)**

**Disclaimer: The usual**

* * *

"I still don't think you thought this through completely." Rick said, as he unpacked another suitcase.

"What's the matter Castle? I thought you liked some alone time with me." Kate purred, also unpacking her stuff.

"Believe me, I like alone time with you and really enjoyed your stay at my place even though the reason for that was that yours was blown up. But this is a whole new level."

"Come on, what is so bad? We just have to pretend we're newlyweds on our honeymoon until those mobsters who are our next door neighbors incriminate themselves. And for that we brought the surveillance gear. Lets go." Kate said and headed to the door with a small bag.

"What? Now?"

"Yeah, the suspects left the hotel, Ryan and Espo are in the lobby and will warn us should they get back before we're done. Now come on."

Both headed out into the hallway and after checking for others quickly picked the locks on the other door. Heading in, Rick quickly spotted the air vent that they wanted to use to put their surveillance gear in.

"Kate, there it is. Give me the screwdriver."

"I can do that Castle."

"I don't doubt that Kate but I'm taller and I won't need a chair or something else that would leave marks on the carpet to reach it."

Realizing the wisdom of his thinking, she handed him the tools. Rick quickly loosened three of the four screws and let the grate swing down on its remaining one before taking the little camera and microphone from her and putting it into the vent.

"Ok, a little more to the left and turn it about 20 degrees clockwise." Kate said, while checking the feed of the camera on her pad. "Ok, right there. Fix it."

Rick did as he was told and fixed the position of the camera with some duct tape before taking the cable out of her pad and snaked it into the shaft. Taking an inch rule he measured the distance of the air vent to the wall and made a note on his notepad. Putting the grate back in place and screwing it tight, both left the room and entered theirs again.

"Not with this one Kate." Rick said, when Kate unpacked an electric drill.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because the other guests on this floor would surely say something to the manager if some guest suddenly started drilling, even if it's just a minute."

Kate saw the wisdom in that and put away the drill only to roll her eyes when Rick took out a hand drill before she could ask about what he would use. Not saying anything, he took the inch rule again, set the distance he had written down and started hand drilling. Seeing that it would take a while, Kate sat down and just watched him work.

"Done." Rick exclaimed proudly after 30 minutes. He took a hook needle, snaked it through the hole and pulled out the cable from the bug. Kate tested it with the pad again. After seeing that it works, she pulled the cable out and Rick hid it under the picture that was over the hole in the wall.

"Great. Now we just have to wait until they come back and we can watch and listen." Kate said.

"Okay. Now, do you want to talk about how we should do this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we're supposed to be newlyweds so we're not that suspicious if we stay mainly in our room. But at some point we have to go outside and we should act accordingly."

"Sounds easy."

"Really, honey?" Rick said, seeing Kate's face after his use of the word honey. "Then kiss me."

"Excuse me?"

"Kiss me. Not a tongue battle or something like that, but a few seconds long peck on the lips."

"Why?"

"We're newlyweds Kate!" Rick exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. "We're supposed to be inseparable. Have you seen newlyweds on their honeymoon? When they are outside, they almost joined at the hip. Some are always one step away of jumping each other right there.

"We're not believable as a couple who just married if your facial expression changes to confused anytime I touch you or you take a step back if my face comes close to yours. Also, you should starting to call me Rick or Ricky. We're pretending to be the Rogers so if you suddenly call me Castle in the middle of the other guests, it could become very awkward and that doesn't even count in the possibility that someone might recognize me even with this annoying beard I had to grow."

"Okay, you made your point." Kate said and stood up.

Rick stood up as well when Kate started to pace, her face one of concentration before she looked directly into his eyes. Putting up a smile, which he knew was fake because it didn't reach her eyes but could fool a casual onlooker, she stepped in close to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth.

Before Rick could react and wrap his arms around her waist, she stepped back again.

"How was that?" she asked.

"That was good. Your smile should reach your eyes though. And I like that you didn't wipe your lips right after." Rick said and smiled at her, earning himself a real smile from her.

"See, that's the smile I want to see. Now, lets text the boys that we're done, take my hand and we check out the hotel. Maybe we learn something about our neighbors from the staff or other guests. Come on, Misses Rogers."

"Good idea." she said smiling and took his offered hand. "Lead the way, Mister Rogers."

Together they went out into the hall and the dining room of the hotel. Strangely Kate didn't feel any notion of distancing herself and instead got even closer to him and enjoyed the closeness of Rick. Way better than having some of the other candidates beside her that she didn't even knew.

* * *

_Two days before_

"_Okay people, settle down." Montgomery said to the assembled group. The twenty something people shut up and directed their attention to the captain. Kate looked around and saw a couple of detectives from robbery and narcotics plus several uniforms. Her own team minus Castle was here too. As a civilian consultant, he wasn't included in such meetings and he was coming in later anyway._

"_As you know, after the murder of the Smiths, homicide is now directly involved in the investigation into the Garotti family. Me and the other captains came to the conclusion that an undercover operation would be the best way to get information. We know that Garotti has taken up a somewhat permanent residence in the Borgia hotel._

"_His choice of room is a stroke of luck for us because he is right next to the honeymoon suite of said hotel. To that end we decided to plant two of you as a newlywed couple in the honeymoon suite. The wife part has been volunteered to Detective Kate Beckett from homicide."_

_It took a few seconds for Kate to realize that her name has been said. Several of the other detectives looked appreciative at her._

"_Detective Beckett, you have free choice of your husband, so to speak. To keep it believable, someone roughly your age should be the choice." Montgomery said._

_Kate looked at the assembled detectives. Apart from Ryan and Esposito, only a detective Miller from narcotics and a detective Demming from robbery fit the formula. The others were too old to be her pretend husband. Before she could create an awkward moment of not choosing anyone for lack of interest and ability to pretend to be their wife, a familiar face walked into the bullpen with two cups of coffee in his hands._

"_Sir, I made my choice." she said to the Captain, before turning to Rick. "Hey Castle, you want to marry me?"_

* * *

"You should have seen your face, Rick." Kate said laughing. "When I asked you to marry me, I thought you would crush the coffee cups."

"Well, in terms of marriage proposals, a police station is usually very low on my list of choices. Especially when the question is popped as soon as the recipient enters the room. And I didn't even get a ring." Castle pouted.

"Shouldn't I get the ring?" Kate asked.

"Well, you would if I had asked you but you asked me. But believe me, when I ask you, you will get a lavish but very tasteful ring." Castle answered her with a smile on his face.

Kate didn't know what to say. _'He said when, not if. Is he actually planning to ask me to marry him one day? I'm not even that interested in him.' _she thought, as she unconsciously wrapped her arm around his waist and started twirling her hair with her free hand.

They entered the hotel restaurant and took two seats in the back. When the waiter came by to bring them the menus and ask them about drinks, Rick took the opportunity for information gathering.

"Excuse me, I have a question. Do you know anything about our neighbors, a Mister Garotti, I believe?" he asked, earning him a shocked look from Kate at his audacity.

"Not so much, why do you ask?" the waiter inquired.

"Well, this is embarrassing. The bed in our suite is on the wall that separates us from our neighbor instead on the window wall. And the walls are not that thick to absorb all the impacts, if you know what I mean." Rick said, getting a smile from the waiter.

"I think that won't be a problem. If he says something, we will tell you and you might talk to him yourself."

"I think, we might do that if it comes to that."

Both ordered their drinks and soon after ate a lovely dinner before heading back up and seeing, for the first time, their target in person on the screen, together with two people who were possibly his lieutenants.

They watched them for two hours doing nothing more than shuffling papers around and talking about things that were in some form illegal but nothing to do with the murder that Kate was interested in. The other stuff about narcotics would interest the appropriate detectives though. At about 11 pm, they put down paper and pens and started drinking expensive scotch and whiskey.

After 45 minutes of that, with Kate and Rick throwing theories around, some rather loudly because they were both wearing headphones to listen to the conversations in the other room, Kate took the headphones off to go to the bathroom. When she got back, Rick saw one of the lieutenants sitting down next to and putting his ears to the wall they shared.

"What is he doing?" Kate whispered to Rick, lifting the headphones he had on.

"I think they heard us talking and right now they are wondering why they don't hear any salacious stuff from a newlywed couple who are still awake." he answered, before pulling off his headphones completely and standing in front of the foot end of the bed.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Putting on a show. Get into the bed." he said, and Kate obliged him with a look in her face that was something between confused and annoyed.

"Put your head on the pillow and start moaning."

"Excuse me? Are you crazy?"

"Remember, we're newlyweds, we should do what is expected from us. Now start moaning." he said, put his arms on the foot end and started rocking it, making it bump softly into the wall. Realizing what he was doing, Kate did her part and started moaning to the beat of his rocking, sometimes surprised when he changed the speed to fast and sometimes to slow. Strangely enough, she was having fun doing it and was glad to have her face in the pillow so he couldn't see her smile.

"Kate?" he whispered to her, still rocking the bed.

"What?" she asked between moans.

"It's been 30 minutes, yell out your orgasm, will you? I'm getting kind of tired here." Rick said, trying to project either anger or irritation but with his face actually betraying arousal from listening to her moaning.

Kate blushed furiously, more embarrassed that she hadn't realized the time that had passed than by the fact that she was having pretend sex for the enjoyment of some voyeuristic criminals in the next room. Gathering her courage, she screamed into her pillow, thinking about the times they had close calls during her stay with him or when they had seen each other naked on separate occasions.

Seeing that the criminals had stopped listening, both went to bed to get some much needed sleep. But both were having trouble falling asleep.

* * *

_'_Wow, he really has a great bathroom.'_ Kate thought, as she stood in Rick's bathroom, having commandeered his shower stall when she realized that nobody was home after she got back from work. Rick was at a book signing, Alexis had excused herself to a friend and Martha had moved out. Right after her shower, she took her time in his hot tub, enjoying the bubbles as they massaged her skin._

_After 45 minutes in heaven, she got out of the bath, wrapped the towel around her body and went back out heading to her own room to get dressed again. When she came out, her gaze fell to the DVD collection and she decided to pick out a movie for the evening. As she passed the couch, her towel got snagged by the edge and fell to the floor. With a sigh, she bend down to pick it up when suddenly a voice was behind her._

"_Now that's a view I could get used to when I'm coming home." she heard Castle distinct voice say._

_Realizing she was effectively mooning him with her being bend over with her ass right in his view, she blushed furiously, jumped up again and turned around to face him._

"_What the hell Castle? Didn't you ever hear of knocking?"_

"_Why should I? I live here, remember? I have a key? And I really didn't expect to come home to my house guest bend over naked in my living room, giving me a full view of her perfect behind."_

_That remarked killed any retort she had and made her blush even more if that was possible._

"_Yeah well, next time please announce yourself in some way."_

"_Will do, honey. And you know what I really like about this situation?"_

"_What? And don't call me honey."_

"_I like the fact that despite your obvious embarrassment you made no move to pick up the towel to cover yourself. And as great as your ass is to look at, the front is even better." he said, wiggling his eyebrows and smiling._

_Kate looked down at her naked body, the towel still in her right hand. Deepening the blush on her face, she wrapped it around her body and went upstairs to get dressed._

"_I'm making dinner." Castle called behind her. "Anything you want? I have a hankering for some chicken. Maybe the breasts."_

"_Can it Castle." Kate yelled down and slammed her door shut. In the privacy of her room she couldn't stop her smile._

* * *

_A week later, Kate was in the kitchen, cleaning up. Putting away the last dishes, she decided to take the dish towel back to the washer when she noticed Rick's open office door. She went inside and noticed him standing in his bedroom, a towel around his waist and nothing more. _

'He must have finally finished his shower' _Kate thought, smiling at Rick's tendency to take sometimes hour long showers. He was reading something, completely oblivious to anything around him with his back to her. Looking at the towel in her hand, she decided to have some fun and silently entered his bedroom._

_Using her towel like a whip, she smacked it across is lower back which wasn't protected by the fabric. She laughed when he literally jumped up and let out a high pitched scream. In his effort to find the source of his discomfort he spun around to face her. Because of the speed of his movement, his towel more or less flew off him, giving Kate a direct view of his 'tool'._

_Kate's eyes went wide and her eyeballs nearly fell out of the sockets when she saw what he had to offer. She knew that the stories about his prowess were not that much exaggerated but the reality of it still stole her breath away. For a long moment, she was wondering why she had resisted his advances when she could have had THAT inside her._

"_Kate, what the hell?" he yelled out, rubbing his stinging back._

"_It was a joke, Castle. Don't be a drama queen." Kate said back, her eyes still on his manhood._

"_Ahem. I'm up here Kate."_

"_I know."_

_Still, her eyes were down there. Her brain was ordering her body to lift her head to look him into the eyes, but for some reason it wouldn't obey. Rick, of course, noticed it and decided to have some fun._

_Using the muscle control every man has, he contracted his groin muscles, making his manhood __twitch upwards slightly. Seeing Kate's eyes grow even wider and her throat moving as she swallowed hard, he grinned to himself. Deciding that it was finally time for him to get dressed, he __grabbed his manhood and lifted it up._

"_Sorry Kate, my master wants me covered now. If you want to play with me later, you know where we are." he said, using a deep, mocking voice._

_That finally snapped Kate out of her trance. She looked at him, blushed furiously and practically ran out of his bedroom. Rick could only smile, even as he heard the guest room door slam shut. He would cook her something great tonight. The smell would lure her out again._

* * *

When Kate woke up, she realized something was very off. It wasn't that the bed was uncomfortable, quite the opposite. It was on par with the bed in Rick's guest room. No, she was lying in his arms. Looking around, she saw and felt several things. For one, when they went to sleep, she was on the right side of the bed, he on the left with about three feet between them. Now, he was still on his side of the bed. That meant, she had rolled the entire way over into his arms.

Two, their legs were completely entangled. How did that happen without either of them waking up-

Three, his left arm was around her waist with his hand on her stomach. For some reason, it felt like that spot on her body was on fire. But it was a very comfortable kind of heat. And her own left hand was on top of his left hand, her fingers intertwined with his.

Four, his right arm was beneath her, with his forearm angled up and his right hand cupping her left breast. Her own right hand was again over his, holding it in place!

It took her two seconds to gather all these information. She desperately needed to get out of his grip before he woke up, otherwise he would never let her forget that she was the one seeking his embrace. But another part of her brain and a certain part of her lower anatomy didn't really want out but even deeper into his embrace.

As these thoughts went through her brain, she felt him stir. That alone didn't really indicate him waking up but what did was the one thing almost every man on earth from puberty onwards experienced in the morning. And knowing what he had hidden in his boxers, she felt herself become rather aroused, especially when her attempts made her ass rub over his crotch, bringing their bodies into a position where she felt his still growing and hardening member position itself directly over her entrance with only her pajama pants and his shorts blocking access.

If she didn't get out soon, she would roll him over and ride him until the bed broke, she was sure of it. Realizing that the slow way wouldn't work, she tried another approach. Tensing all her muscles, she practically ripped out of his embrace, taking his blanket with her, wrapping herself into it and hers.

And of course that sudden movement made him wake up with a sound between a snort and a yelp. She didn't see what he was doing, as she was wrapped in their blankets, with her eyes closed and her breathing even and hoping he wasn't able to hear her pounding heart or smell her arousal, that had probably completely soaked her panties under her pajama pants.

She felt him tugging at his blanket around her, getting it off after a few attempts and muttering something about blanket thief to himself before settling down again. She used this opportunity to fake waking up, turning around to him.

"Morning Castle." she mumbled, hoping he was fooled by it.

"Good morning honey. And try to call me Rick please." he said to her, with a smile on his lips and an admiring look in his eyes as he turned on his side and stretched his right arm out, his palm upwards and in the middle of the bed.

"What?" she asked when she saw him stare at her.

"Oh, nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing. I couldn't help but notice that you look very decent first thing in the morning."

"You're not so bad yourself." she said and placed her right hand on his, her fingers tracing meaningless patterns on his palm.

She looked at him and he looked right back, their gazes locking, making both forget anything around them. In that instant, Kate realized that she could drown in his eyes. If he ever asked her for anything with a look like that, she would never be able to refuse. He could ask her to give him all her money, like he needed it, or for any sexual favor, no matter how depraved it might be and she would say yes.

And she realized it was the same with him. She could ask for anything or demand anything, and he would never refuse her. And she realized one more thing.

They would have sex. Wild sex. The mafia boss in the next room would probably wake up to a hammering sound on his wall, calling the hotel manager and maybe the police because his neighbor was killing his wife. Because she screamed so much. He would hang up the phone with an apology for raising a false alarm after hearing the wife scream in pleasure and asking for more and for him to never ever stop what he was doing.

They would do things to each other that defied every law of possibilities. She would ride him until the tip of his manhood glowed. He would nail her against the wall, making the plaster crack with every stroke. And she would cry out for more.

All this she saw in his gaze and he saw the same in hers. A promise, a warning, an oath, all in one. Eternity in each others embrace, naked, joined.

And it would have happened if he hadn't saved them from it.

"I need to pee." he said, getting up and disappearing into the bathroom. Kate released her breath that she didn't know she was holding. That was close.

After ten minutes, Rick came out of the bathroom and told her he would order breakfast while she showered. When Kate entered the shower stall, she saw that the faucet was set to cold. It made her smile that he seemed to be as aroused as she was. Turning the tap back to warm, she stood under the spray and let the water wash away her thoughts. Except for the ones that made her reach between her legs.

* * *

After a delicious breakfast, they took the recordings from the previous day and night to the precinct and went through them. Not once was one of the murders mentioned between the boss and his two lieutenants.

"Could it be that one of his underlings went rogue in that regard and killed these people without his boss' permission?" Castle asked around.

"Maybe. They discussed every other crime their gang committed, the robberies, extortion, gambling and smuggling. But if that's true then we can't convict him for the murders but if they find the guy before us, they will commit another murder." Ryan answered.

"Well, it would save us a lot of time." Esposito said. "And if they really kill the guy, we can get them for murder too. Although, they will face a lot of jail time for the things they already admitted."

"Well well, what is this?" Ryan asked with a grin as the tapes went to the part where Rick and Kate had pretend sex.

"Yeah well, they put their ears to the wall and we had a role to play. So, we rocked the bed." Castle said.

"And rocking it you did. You seemed to have a lot of fun Beckett." Esposito said, looking at Kate with a grin.

"Drop it Espo, nothing happened. Castle stood in front of the bed and rocked it into the wall while I had to moan into the pillow. It was embarrassing enough doing it, so stop talking about it." Kate said.

"You got anything?" Montgomery asked when he entered the room.

"Nothing about the murders, Sir. But enough to convict them for the other crimes. We think that one of his lieutenants may have committed those murders without asking his boss. If that's the case, we won't get any information from the surveillance that is of use to us directly."

"Ok, then lets continue for one more day. If we don't anything until tomorrow, we arrest them for the other crimes and let the other departments deal with them. When they interrogate them, maybe one of them will point us the a possible suspect." Montgomery said and left the room.

"Are you coping with the arrangement?" Esposito asked Rick and Kate.

"We're coping. Kate snores though." Rick answered.

"I do not!" she said and swatted his arm.

"And she physically abuses me, as you can see. But all joking aside, I can't wait for this to be over. This beard is bugging me, it's itchy and it doesn't suit me."

Kate had a moment of sadness, when he said that he wanted desperately for it to be over but relaxed when she heard his explanation why. She couldn't even fathom why she was sad for it to end.

"I don't know Castle, your beard has just grown out of the scratchy and into the bushy feel." she said and ran her fingers through his beard without much thought.

Neither Rick or Kate noticed the boys' surprised glances at this rather intimate gesture.

* * *

After getting back to the hotel room only to watch their neighbor read the newspaper and do some forms of paperwork all afternoon, they ate an early dinner before playing a plethora of board games to pass the time.

They played nine men's morris, with Rick wiping the floor with Kate. She appreciated the fact that he didn't let her win.

Then they played Gin and Kate wiped the floor with Rick.

Trivial Pursuit and Kate cursed his book learning when he answered even the most obscure questions correctly.

And of course Monopoly. Rick argued against it, since playing Monopoly guaranteed a fight but Kate insisted. He was right in the end, they fought over nuances of rules, although she would never admit him being right. At the end they decided on a draw. Seeing the clock striking 11 pm, they decided to head to bed.

Looking at Kate, Rick pointed at the wall and started rocking up and down on the bed, making it squeak. Kate, again playing her part, started moaning again. After 20 minutes of doing that, both went to bed on their respective ends on the bed, both heavily aroused and neither admitting it.

* * *

Kate woke up in the middle of the night with a sense of déjà vu. She had again rolled to Rick's side of the bed, into his arms, her legs again entangled with his, his right hand on her left breast with her right hand holding it there. There was a difference tonight though. His left hand wasn't on her stomach this time. It was between her legs, under her pajama pants, still over her panties. Her own left hand was again on top of his, but she was in no way moving it away.

The realization and feeling of his hand between her legs lit a fire in er abdomen, pooling exactly where his hand was, making her involuntarily move her hips slightly against his hand again and again and causing her to moan.

A sudden shift in his position ground her ass against his crotch again, causing his manhood to erect again. And again it pressed deliciously against her core with all those pesky layers of clothing between them. But his hips didn't stop rocking against her, always pressing tightly to her before receding a little.

Before Kate could think about if he had woken up, he took his hand out of her pants, much to her silent displeasure and bringing it to his mouth.

"Mhm, you taste good Kate." he whispered sleepily, before bringing his hand back down again, this time under her panties!

Kate couldn't stop a loud moan, when he started rubbing her while his right hand started massaging her breast through her shirt. She realized that he wasn't really awake, just going through motions he probably dreamed or fantasized about often enough to have made it an automatic movement. But boy, was he good doing it. Without completely realizing it, Kate had untangled her left leg from his legs and bend it at the knee to give him easier access to her.

Due to him still not completely awake, his rubbing never sped up, it stayed at its slow speed which was a delicious kind of torture for her as he brought her close to the edge but never quite over. God, she wanted him right now. She was wet, she was horny, he was erect. The only problem was the three layers of clothing between them. That was the only thing Kate could think of right now, never even imagining anything about their future working relationship or their living arrangements that would change quite a bit, if they went down this road.

Those thoughts were in a very small and quite part of Kate's brain. The rest of it was filled with naughty thoughts about her naked in a wrestling match with Rick where it didn't matter if she ended up on top or not, both would win at the end.

Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. Him rubbing her was driving her crazy. She turned around in his arms, rolling him onto his back and straddling him, waking him up completely in the process before placing her lips on his and roughly invading his mouth with her tongue. His surprise wore off quickly, his tongue meeting hers, battling it furiously and pushing it back into her mouth. Her hips kept grinding hard on top of his erection, the moisture in her panties evidence of her arousal and causing him to moan as well.

Separating her lips from his, she let her kisses go down his body, appreciating the fact that he slept shirtless. After kissing her way down to his navel, she sat up and quickly discarded her own shirt, bringing his eyes down to her chest and his hands on her naked breasts. Lowering her head again to kiss her way even further down, she stroke his erection through his boxers. While doing it, she quickly discarded her pajama pants before slowly pulling his shorts down.

When the waist band of his shorts were finally low enough, his erection snapped up, hitting her on the chin and causing both to laugh at the situation. Not letting something like that stop her, she grabbed him and, without breaking eye contact, took him in her mouth. When she got him half in, she realized for the first time since seeing him naked, just how freaking huge he was. She couldn't wait to bring him into her heat.

Moving her head up and down, her tongue teasing his tip with every stroke, she nipped her teeth against his length. His growling told her enough. With his hand on her head, he suddenly sat up, the change in position driving his erection deeper into her mouth than she thought would have been possible. It was like trying to swallow a sausage without biting some off or chewing it.

Luckily, the intent of his actions became clear before she had to submit to the gagging reflex when he grabbed her hips and pivoted her body 180 degrees with her mouth on his erection acting as the fixed point. Somehow he managed to pull her panties off during that move before bringing her hips over his face and his tongue into her heat.

Then they was only them, their heads between the legs of the other, both moaning and breathing hard as they used their tongues and mouths to pleasure the other. Kate didn't know how long they were in this position and she didn't care. All she cared about right now was the feeling of his tongue on her clit and folds, making her squirm and moan and soon, for the third time, falling over the edge and giving a silent scream of pleasure with his erection still in her mouth.

And even though she had come for the third time, she kept grinding her hips against his mouth, inviting his tongue deeper into her with him obliging him as best as his biological disposition allowed. She remembered his words to her in regards to Will Sorenson. _'Ying needs Yang, then it's harmony.'_ She couldn't help but notice that their position mirrored Ying and Yang quite satisfactory.

All their ministrations to each other and moaning made them miss the muffled and heated argument in the next room.

After her fourth orgasm, one that had her moaning so hard that she was unable to keep his erection in her mouth, he flipped her around again and due to their already precarious position on the edge of the bed, they fell off completely, landing on the floor with a thud with him on top of her. Both chuckling but without a word of apology, he spread open her legs and positioned himself at her entrance.

Suddenly, before he could enter her, they were showered with splinters when shots rang out from the next room, bullets smacking into their furniture and mattress. Cursing hard, they crawled under the bed, Kate grabbing her police bag to take out her gun. When the gunfire stopped, they got up and quickly dressed. Kate called up Ryan and Esposito and more backup before heading out into the hallway where other quests had started running around in panic at the sounds of gunfire.

She, with Castle behind her, stood at the door to the boss' suite, seeing it open. A quick peek showed no movement inside and Kate stepped into the room to find four dead people. The boss with a gun in his hand, the two lieutenants that had been with him the other day and another person with two guns in his hands.

It took ten minutes for Ryan, Esposito and a CSU to show up and take care of the crime scene. Castle had excused himself after they showed up. Kate and the boys went back to their room to check the footage of the camera to see what had transpired. Luckily, Castle had used the time to clean up anything that could indicate their activity before the shooting started. When she saw the look in his eyes it said only one thing. _'We're not done yet. When we get home, we're going to finish what we started.' _Her own gaze told only agreement.

Going through the footage, they saw the unknown fourth man being brought in by the two lieutenants. It seemed that they found out that he had killed those people and were going to discipline him, leading to a shouting match about the direction the family business was going. It wasn't long before the boss pulled out his gun, with a silencer, to carry out the final verdict but the unknown guy had other plans, pulling out his two guns an starting to fire blindly at the others, killing the two lieutenants with his first shots, before being shot by the boss. His own shots hit the boss in the chest however, leading to the deaths of all four of them.

* * *

"And that's about it." Kate said, after explaining the events to the assembled group of detectives from the different branches. The files they recovered from the suite were enough to unravel the entire crime organization so the case was a win for all of them.

"One more thing I would like to know." Detective Demming asked, looking at Kate with a gaze that was something else than professional, which Rick noticed. Kate noticed it too and stepped closer to Rick.

"Yes?" she asked.

"How did you survive unharmed? According to CSU, they entered the wall at an angle that made them impact the bed. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad none of you got hurt but I'm just curious."

Before Kate could think of something, Rick had a lie ready.

"Kate saved me. Before I was even awake, she pushed me off the bed. That made me wake up, I grabbed her in panic and pulled her down with me..."

"... which saved my life." she finished for him. "And before you ask, Detective, I was already awake, the argument woke me up although I couldn't understand what was said. And the first bullets hit the wall above the bed and passed over us."

That explanation seemed to satisfy him. The group quickly wrapped up and went out, leaving Rick and Kate at her desk.

"So." he began, clearly thinking about one thing in particular. "You want to talk about it?"

"No." she answered, before continuing in a low voice. "But I really like to finish what we started. Lets go home, Castle."

Home. It was the first time she referred to his place as home even though she was a temporary resident only. But it sounded so right, he didn't want to correct her. When they were in the elevator, she took his hand in hers, a gesture that promised so much more.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this took me so long. Had some issues with my arm and caught a stomach flu of all things. So writing was rather something less of a priority.**

**Review please :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: This one is set in season 5. Kate and Rick are a couple already.**

**Disclaimer: Again, the usual.**

* * *

An almost perfect murder

"What do we have guys?" Kate asked when she entered the hotel with Rick on her heels.

"Three victims. Lanie is with the third right now." Ryan answered.

"Three victims?" Castle asked.

"Yeah but we already checked. They are not related and were not together, all died at separate locations in this hotel at different times. Though only the last one is clearly a murder." Esposito said.

"Why?" Kate asked again.

"Because the third victim was shot with a pillow used as a poor man's silencer. The others could be accidental or natural deaths if it weren't for the fact that they all happened tonight." Esposito answered, just as Lanie closed in on them.

"Lanie what do you have?" Kate asked her.

"First victim's name is John Benning, he looks to have died of a heart attack, but I won't know anything better until I have him on my table. Second victim's name is Victor Hernandez, he apparently died of an anaphylactic shock but without his medical records we don't know what he was allergic of. And the third, a Mike Lee, was shot in the chest."

"And you think they were all murdered?" Castle asked her.

"Well, since the first two can be ruled accidental or natural it'll be hard to prove otherwise but the timing is very suspicious. But that's just a feeling, you'll have to find out."

"Who found them? Did the canvas turn something up?" Kate asked.

"Nothing out of the ordinary in the first two cases. A few bottles of medicines, one of them was open and empty on the floor. Cleaning staff found them." Ryan said. "Nothing out of the ordinary in the rooms, though the second victim had his own glasses, dishes and cutlery with him. In the third, we found the pillow that was used as a silencer but nothing else out of the ordinary. It looks like he was shot in his sleep."

"Depending of the severity of his allergies that might not be so strange." Castle put in.

"Okay, lets wrap up here and head back to the station." Kate said to the group. "Lanie, as soon as you have something, call me. Castle and I will go talk to the manager. Ryan, you go and get the surveillance footage of the last week from the hotel, all of it. Maybe we see our killer or killers enter the rooms."

"You got it girl." Lanie said and left along with Ryan and Esposito.

* * *

"Mister Barnham..." Kate started but was immediately interrupted.

"Please, call me Mike." the hotel manager, who looked to be in his late forties, said to her, blatantly trying to flirt with her and vehemently ignoring Rick's presence.

"Mister Barnham, can you tell me anything about those three guests and especially about those who were responsible for their room service." Kate said, giving him an eye roll.

"Nothing much. They weren't part of the convention guests and as far as I know didn't know each other. Two of them were on the same floor."

"Okay, we need a list of the staff that worked these floors in the last three days." Kate said.

"I can print one out and give it to you over drinks." Barnham replied, a sly smile on his face, earning himself another eye roll.

"Save it, Mister Barnham, I'm not available." she said, frustrated and annoyed at the guys audacity.

After receiving the list, she gave it to Castle to make use of his speed reading ability. He quickly scanned the page.

"That's a lot of temps you have on staff." he said.

"Yes, we had to bring them in. Usually this time of year, business is slow. But one of our chain's other hotels had a main water break which flooded the lower floors and shorted out the main wiring. So they transferred most of the guests here. We got about 600 people who are in New York for some convention and after the hotel I mentioned we're the one closest to the center it is held in."

"But why so many temps? That's almost 60." Kate asked after seeing the list for herself.

"Hotel policy. Many of our regulars are on vacation. We use temps only in four hours shifts so we don't have to give them a paid break. That means each spot is filled with at least 4 temps a day and some rarely come back the next. The jobs they do are not that hard that they'd need a lot of training, just acting as bell boys or room service."

"Thank you Mister Barnham, that will be all for now. If we have more questions, we will contact you again." Kate said and turned to leave.

"Please, contact me anytime Detective." he replied, getting another eye roll for it and more clenched teeth from Rick.

Both left the hotel to further check out the list and prepare for a grueling session of watching people walk through hallways on low quality picture. Not to mention interviewing a lot of them.

* * *

"Okay, we can probably scratch about 40 of those 60 temps from the list. They never worked on those floors in question. If the surveillance footage corroborates this, we'll have a lot less people to interview." Kate said to the group. "You got anything yet Ryan?"

"Not much, just all those temps going about their business, sweeping floors, delivering food and drinks etc. Have you contacted them yet?" he asked.

"Yes, we reached 18 of those 20 and told them to come in."

"The shooting looks to me like a crime of passion, planned a little because the victim was asleep but not too much thought into it because if you plan to kill someone in his sleep you can do it better than with shooting him." Rick theorized.

"Makes sense. But lets not rule anything out until we have talked to the staff."

"Beckett, look." Ryan piped in, his face still glued to the screen. "You see this guy?" he asked and pointed to the figure on the screen.

"What about him?"

"So far, he's the only one who had contact with both victims on this floor. Never got close to our shooting victim."

"You still think, the first two were murders?" Rick asked Kate.

"My gut says yes, despite the evidence so far screaming "No" at me. But we'll have to see what the interviews will give us."

"Detective?" came the question of a uniform officer. "The first is here."

"Thank you. Bring him into the lounge and we'll start..." she started to say when her phone rang. "Beckett... okay, we're coming down." she hung up. "Lanie's got something. Guys, start the interviews, Castle and I will go to Lanie."

"Will do Boss." Esposito said.

* * *

"What have you got for us Lanie?" Kate asked without preamble after entering the morgue.

"I pulled the medical files of our victims. Cause of death for the third victim is clear, gun shot wound, no surprises there. But the autopsies of the other two gave me some surprise.

"First, our heart attack victim. Records showed he had a condition I never heard of before that made his heart flutter when his system is flooded with adrenalin. The medicine you found in his bag and on his night stand are some form of downers, designed to immediately lower is adrenaline level when he has a nightmare for example."

"Ryan said that they found medicine bottles, one of which was open and on the floor." Kate said.

"He probably woke up with a hammering heart beat and tried to take the medicine but his heart gave out before he could drink it." Castle mused.

"Possible. The amount of adrenaline I found in his system is close to the maximum the body can produce on its own."

"Is it possible someone dosed him up?" Castle asked.

"Maybe. I found no fresh needle marks on his body. You can maybe add adrenaline to the body by oral means but in no way enough to match the amount you could inject with a needle. And I doubt he ate an adrenaline chicken soup before going to bed."

"So, ruling?" Kate asked her.

"All the evidence points to heart attack. So far I haven't found anything that can link it to a murder."

"What about the other victim?"

"His medical records show he was deathly allergic to citrus. Even the smallest amounts could lead to asphyxiation."

"That could explain why he had his own cutlery and dishes with him. Who knows what kind of cleaner a hotel uses." Castle said.

"Amazing, writer-boy. Under a minute." Lanie said proudly.

"So how did the citrus get into his system?" Kate asked Lanie.

"What if the bed sheets were washed with citrus based detergent? Could that lead to death?"

"Highly unlikely. If you are that allergic to something, you make sure nothing is amiss. And if the sheets were washed with something citrous, you'd smell the residue, so he wouldn't have slept on it."

"That leaves oral intake." Kate said. "He probably ate or drank it. We need to find out what meals or drinks he ordered the day he died."

"Not even for the whole day. All victims were seen alive that evening, so they died at night. We only need to find out what they ordered for dinner." Castle said. "Then we might find a killer."

"I hate to rain in on your parade but this case is the same with the other victim. Everything points to an accidental death. You'd have to prove that one of the temps or kitchen staff knew of the allergy and deliberately poisoned him with citrus." Lanie piped in.

"How long did it take for him to die?" Castle asked.

"Given the severity of his allergy, I'd say a minute, tops. Within seconds he wouldn't have been able to take deep breaths, let alone speak. If he had sucked on a lemon directly, I'm sure death would've been instantaneous.

"To sum it up, even if a single person was responsible for all three deaths, the only one you could put on him would be the shooting victim. The other two would have to be ruled as accidental or natural, except the killer told you how he did it. And if he told you, I'd very much like to be present."

"One step at a time Lanie." Kate said. Looking at her watch, she turned to Castle. "Want to grab some lunch? The boys are busy with the interviews, we could buy them some too. Lanie, you want to come too?"

"Nah girl, I don't want to intrude in your quality time with your boy toy here." she said, pointing to Castle.

"Don't worry Lanie, my quality time with him are usually at different times of a work day."

"Girl, that's TLI, seriously."

"TLI?"

"Too little information. You still owe me lots of info about him."

"Ahem. I'm right here, ladies." Castle said, feeling left out.

"Uh, it speaks too. Does it grunt or moan during your 'quality time'?"

"Lanie!" both Rick and Kate said in unison.

"That's so cute. Now off you go." Lanie said and dismissed them with a grin and a wave of her hand.

* * *

After a good lunch at Remy's, Kate and Rick returned to the precinct, bags of food in hand for their colleagues, who were stuck there doing interviews. Just as they entered the bull pen, Ryan and Esposito left the lounge with another of the temps.

"Anything?" Kate asked.

"That was number 18 of the list. Nothing. None of the temps knew the victims, and further examination of the surveillance footage corroborates their statements. We found out that number 19 on the list is in the hospital, having had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. The thing is, number 20 on the list is the one who was seen delivering stuff to the victims closest to their time of deaths. He brought a bottle of wine to the allergy victim and dinner to the heart attack guy. But he wasn't even near the third."

"Okay, lets find out who he is and find him. Maybe questioning him will give us some answers." Kate said, handing the list to Rick who compared it to the list of already interviewed temps before laughing out loud, startling the others.

"What's so funny?" Esposito asked

"I just realized. The name of our number 20 is John Dough. Dough as in cookie dough. His parents must not have liked him much. It's like having the last name Mandalay and naming your daughter Anita."

"Anita Mandalay?" Ryan asked before his face lit up. "Ah, now I get it."

"Ben Dover?" Esposito suggested.

"Isn't that a male porn actor?"

"Brighton Early?"

"Arya Reddy?"

"Stanley Cupp?"

"Rose Bush?"

"Rocky Rhoades?"

"Sandy Beach?"

"GUYS!" Kate yelled, interrupting the guys before they could throw out any more names. "Please get back to the case. Find the address of Mister Dough and we'll pay him a visit."

* * *

It took a bit of digging but they found the address and all four were on their way to the place of Mister Dough. Going up to his floor, they knocked on the door without getting an answer. They heard banging and grunting from inside, as if someone was dropping heavy things on the floor. Nodding to each other, they took out their guns, Castle went to the back, but before Esposito could kick in the door, Kate tried the doorknob and to their surprise it was open.

Going in, weapons drawn they checked the living room to find it empty. Hearing a grunting from the next room they prepared to go in when the person they wanted to find came out, headphones on, dragging an old carpet out. Still none the wiser that he had uninvited guests in his apartment, he almost collided with Esposito before he turned around, probably to open the door.

"Whoa!" Dough shouted, startling Esposito and Ryan who lifted their guns in response.

Before anyone could say anything, Dough gave Esposito two openhanded slaps on his ears, the sudden pressure chance making him faint and grabbing his gun out of his hands as he dropped. Before Esposito's body could hit the floor, Dough knocked Ryan's gun upwards and punched him in the solar plexus, dropping him as well.

"STOP! NYPD! DROP THE GUN!" Kate yelled on the top of her lungs, her gun raised and pointed at their suspect who had Esposito's gun pointed at her with Castle at the door, looking into the room with panic in his eyes.

Dough's eyes went to Kate's waistline where her badge was clipped to her pants and his eyes went wide before he lowered the gun.

"You're police?" he asked and took the headphones off, and even Kate could hear the loud music blaring from them.

"Yes!" Kate said, her gun not lowered. Meanwhile, Esposito had woken up but was still on the ground.

"Man, I thought you were home invaders." Dough said, put on the safety of the gun and expertly flipped it in his hand, holding it handle first towards Esposito who took it, before going over to Ryan who was still on the ground, fighting to breath.

Kate was ready to pull the trigger in case he tried something funny and before she could order him to step away from her colleague, he flipped Ryan on his back, pulled him up and laid him down on his right knee, bending his back. Ryan started taking deep breaths, as Esposito, who had got back up, and Kate looked on, their guns still raised.

"I'm terribly sorry Detectives. How may I help you?" Dough asked.

"You're under arrest." Kate said.

"I figured as much." Dough sighed, stood up and helped Ryan to his feet before holding out his hands to get cuffed.

"You're not surprised?"

"Well, I just assaulted two law enforcement officers, even if it was by accident. So no, I'm not really surprised." Dough said and was escorted to the precinct.

* * *

They placed him, still in handcuffs, into the interrogation room, not wanting to repeat the situation in his apartment.

"Ryan, Espo, I will conduct the interview with Castle, you guys can watch from the observation room. I don't know if he killed those people but what he did to us is more than a mere temp worker from a hotel should be able to do." Kate said.

"Yeah, he took us down like we were little kids. My sternum still hurts. And Espo has a bruised ego." Ryan said, earning himself an icy look from the latino.

Kate and Rick went into the interrogation room where their suspect was sitting at the table, his hands handcuffed to the table. He was whistling the tune of the Godfather movie when he saw them.

"Is that really necessary?" Dough asked, shaking his cuffed hands. "I apologized for my behavior."

"After your stunt earlier, we like to be on the safe side." Kate asked. "So, Mister Dough..." she started, with Castle smiling next to her.

"Save it Mister Castle. I heard the jokes. Not funny after 32 years." Dough said, seeing Rick's smile.

"Sorry." he said.

"Mister Dough, do you know John Benning or Victor Hernandez?" Kate asked and slid the pictures of the first two victims over to him.

"Not personally, no. But they were guests at the hotel that I worked at for a few days and I room serviced them."

"Did you notice anything in particular about them?"

"When Mister Hernandez ordered food, he wanted us to put it into plastic containers or his own dishes. And he always specifically ordered drinks in bottles without a glass.

"But both people were somewhat agitated every time I brought something up."

"Agitated how?"

"You know, I'd knock and announce myself as room service when they ask who's there. Then they'd look through the peephole before opening the door. And when the door was open their eyes flicked from left to right as if looking for something. They were scared."

"How do you know they looked through the peephole?" Castle asked.

"Change in light. If a point of light shines through it and it gets dark then someone is standing behind the door." Dough answered.

"And how do you know they were scared just by the movement of their eyes?" Kate asked.

"Not just the eye movement, that was just the most obvious sign. Their whole body language screamed frightened."

"How do you figure?"

"Body language. It tells you everything, if you know where to look and what to look for. I can give you a demonstration if you like."

"Please. Give it your best shot." Kate said.

"Well, I'm 100% positive that you two are sleeping with each other, the way your bodies gravitate towards each other in whatever you do is a clear indicator. Also, if your relationship is only sexual, I highly advise you to upgrade it to a romantic one because you both clearly have deep feelings for each other."

"How about this guy?" Kate asked, showing him the picture of Mike Lee and still flustered about how easy he had seen through them.

"No, never had contact with him. I saw him twice on the ground floor but nothing else."

"You very quick with your answers." Castle said to him.

"Yes, I have a photographic memory. I never forget a face or where I saw it but I rarely remember the name of the person. If you show me those pictures in ten years, I can tell you when and where I saw them but I'd never be able to tell you their names."

They asked him more questions without getting answers that would incriminate him to have committed a crime.

"Fancy moves you showed at your home." Castle said after an hour of questioning.

"Thank you. I try hard to keep in shape."

"What martial art was that?"

"A mix of Wu Shu, Krav Maga and Taek Won Do. I studied all three martial arts and combined the techniques with some street fighting moves I learned as a kid."

"How long did you train?"

"20 years now. I started when I was bullied in school when I was 12."

Before they could ask anything else, the door opened, revealing Captain Gates.

"Detective Beckett, Mister Castle. A word please?" she said and left. Both Rick and Kate stood up and left their suspect cuffed in the interrogation room.

* * *

"What have you got?" Gates asked the team when they had assembled in the Captain's office.

"We just got a track on a suspect of the shooting victim. Surveillance showed someone entering the room at night but the face was partially hidden." Ryan said, getting a surprised look from Kate, who was out of the loop in that regard.

"And what about the suspect you have in there?" Gates asked Kate.

"Nothing to link him to a crime. If he somehow did it, we can't prove it since the deaths look natural." Kate answered.

"Are they murders?"

"Honestly? I don't know. My gut says yes and I have a strong suspicion about our current suspect but as I said, we can't prove anything."

"What about your suspect?"

"I don't know. Something about him, the way he took down Ryan and Esposito like nothing or how he handled the gun he took from them. Those are strange abilities for a hotel temp."

"Do we have anything to hold him here? Without something, we have to let him go."

"Well, he assaulted two officers, although it was kind of self defense because he didn't know we were police." Ryan stated.

"That's grounds enough to hold him for 24 hours. Put him into holding and we'll continue this tomorrow..." Gates started before everybody went quite as they heard someone whistling the tune of the Godfather.

All turned towards the bull pen and saw their suspect walk nonchalantly towards the vending machines, putting money in and getting a soda. They exited the office and watched, mouths agape, as Dough went back to the interrogation room. They hurried into the observation room and saw Dough taking a drink from his soda and put the handcuffs back on.

"What the hell did just happen? Our suspect uncuffed himself, got a drink and cuffed himself again. Did anyone else see that?" Castle asked.

"I saw it." Ryan asked, still shocked.

"Put him into holding. The most secure cell we have." Gates ordered and all left the observation room. All four looked on as their suspect was led away by uniforms but nobody noticed that the empty soda can wasn't on the interrogation room table anymore.

Kate sank back into her chair and put her arms over her eyes, sighing tiredly. The whole case was frustrating, with all her instincts screaming murder and all the evidence telling the opposite.

"You're frustrated." Rick pointed out, earning a smile from her.

"And how do you suggest to remedy that?" she asked seductively.

"Oh, I have a couple ideas." he said, smiling.

"Oh? Care to show me?"

"Of course. Lets go home."

* * *

"God Castle!" Kate yelled out for the eighth time this night, taking Rick with her for the third time and collapsing on top of him. When he told her he'd destress her, he wasn't kidding. He whipped up a delicious dinner before taking her to bed and doing the magic she had come to love.

Now they were lying in bed together, their legs entangled, enjoying each others feeling.

"Do you still think the first two cases were murders?" Rick asked her.

"Yes. Despite all the evidence against it, my gut is still screaming murder."

"What if we can't prove anything. Even you believe in your heart, the guy is guilty, you can't prove anything."

"Yet. Every murder leaves evidence. We just have to find it."

"That's not what I meant. We know that the one guy died from ingesting citrus but how could you prove that one guy did it on purpose?"

"I don't know Rick. I don't know." Kate sighed and pressed herself deeper into his embrace, enjoying the warmth his body exuded, thoroughly sated in her bodily needs.

Both inhaled deeply before settling again. Their silent harmony was interrupted when they heard a whistled Godfather tune from the living room.

* * *

**A/N: It's a cliffhanger. I know, I'm evil :D Although these are planned as one-shots, I decided to make a two parter this time. They have one in every Castle season (except the first)**

**Review please**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: And now the conclusion. Hope you like it :)**

**Disclaimer: bla bla not mine bla bla**

* * *

_Last time:_

"_God Castle!" Kate yelled out for the eighth time this night, taking Rick with her for the third time and collapsing on top of him. When he told her he'd destress her, he wasn't kidding. He whipped up a delicious dinner before taking her to bed and doing the magic she had come to love._

_Now they were lying in bed together, their legs entangled, enjoying each others feeling._

"_Do you still think the first two cases were murders?" Rick asked her._

"_Yes. Despite all the evidence against it, my gut is still screaming murder."_

"_What if we can't prove anything. Even you believe in your heart, the guy is guilty, you can't prove anything."_

"_Yet. Every murder leaves evidence. We just have to find it."_

"_That's not what I meant. We know that the one guy died from ingesting citrus but how could you prove that one guy did it on purpose?"_

"_I don't know Rick. I don't know." Kate sighed and pressed herself deeper into his embrace, enjoying the warmth his body exuded, thoroughly sated in her bodily needs._

_Both inhaled deeply before settling again. Their silent harmony was interrupted when they heard a whistled Godfather tune from the living room._

* * *

Both Kate and Rick went stock still, both wondering if they had imagined hearing that sound. It was Rick, who finally broke the silence.

"Was that...?" he started but was interrupted by another whistling outside.

Both jumped out of bed, scrambling to put on sweatpants and shirts, both forgoing underwear in favor of speed. Kate raced into Rick's adjacent office, quickly entering the combination of the safe to get her gun. When she finally opened it, she swore under her breath.

Her badge was still there. The gun was gone.

"Castle!" she whispered.

"What?" he whispered back.

"My gun's gone. I put it in the safe with my badge after coming home but now only the badge is here."

"You're gun is out here with me, Detective Beckett." both heard someone say from the living room. "Come out please, I'm not here to hurt anyone. I just want to talk."

Rick and Kate walked out of his office into the living room, apprehensive and slow to see their suspect of the afternoon sitting on his chair, her gun in his gloved hands, pointed at them.

"Not really convincing if you point a gun at us." Castle said after seeing their suspect.

"This?" Dough said and lifted the gun. "This is just to make sure you didn't do anything stupid upon coming out here."

With that, he expertly took out the magazine and the bullet out of the chamber and slid the empty gun over the table towards Kate before settling back into the chair, magazine still in hand.

"Just an insurance." he said, after seeing Rick's questioning look.

"You said, you wanted to talk?" Kate stated, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

"I want to help you. Somebody was murdered in that hotel who didn't have to die tonight and I was to take the blame for it."

"What does that mean? Did the other two had to die tonight?" she asked.

"Yes."

Both Kate and Rick sat back and exhaled at the serious and dry way Dough stated that. No emotion, no sign of regret, nothing.

"Did you murder these people?" Kate asked.

"No. I killed them."

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes. Murdering someone implies that they were defenseless. Killing someone is different."

"Who are you?" Rick asked. "Your name is obviously fake."

"Of course it is. And you don't really expect me to tell you my real name, do you?"

"Was kinda hoping for it. But why John Dough."

"Because I found that law enforcement doesn't look too deep if you have a funny and fake sounding name, instead of just a fake sounding name like John Smith or something."

"What are you?" Rick asked again.

"I think, you figured that out already, Mister Castle." Dough answered.

"You're an assassin?"

"Correct."

"Do you fight against the Templars or their offshoots?" Rick asked excitedly.

"You watch too much TV or you play way too many computer games, Mister Castle." Dough said.

"Tell me about it." Kate muttered, earning herself a look from Rick. Then she got serious again. "But it doesn't matter if you see a difference between murder and killing, the fact is that you did it."

"No, my employer did it. I am merely a weapon. Do you put a gun in jail after its owner shot someone?"

"That's different. A gun is an inanimate object without free will." she said.

"An employed assassin is the same thing. We get an order to kill someone, like a gun that has its trigger pressed, and we do it. What differentiates people like me from guns is the fact that we can choose the way how we take out our targets."

"And that's supposed to make it better?"

"Depends on whose perspective." Dough stated.

"How is it different? For example, if you kill a father, it doesn't matter much because the children still lost one of their parents." Kate again asked, losing her cool.

"It matters a lot. Take you for example. Your mother was killed by someone who wrongfully fancied himself an assassin. He did it by stabbing her once to kill her and then more times to cover the first wound. And then he left her dead where she lay.

"First, he could have taken her valuables so it could have looked like a mugging gone wrong. You'd still grieved for her but at least you knew the reason for her death, instead of just wondering why she was killed for no apparent reason. Second, had I accepted the offer to kill her, not that I would have even considered taking the job, I would've killed her by making it look like an accident, a car crash or something like that. You would still grieve for her loss but it wouldn't be as much a blow as knowing she was killed."

"What do you mean, you didn't take the job?" Rick asked, both curious and wanting to keep Kate focused instead of her having flashbacks to her killed mother and the SOB who ordered it.

"I can safely say that I'm one of the best if not the best in this line of work. I can demand exorbitant fees for my services and I always deliver. During the last few years I started to get very selective about my contracts and I don't kill them in an obvious manner unless the employer absolutely demands it. And I don't kill innocent people because someone feels threatened or slighted by them.

"Oh yes Detective, I was offered the job of killing your mother." Dough said, after seeing Kate's look on her face. "But she wasn't a criminal and didn't in any way deserve to die. She just was stepping on a Senators toes and for the fears of one man, she had to die."

"You know who is behind the killing?" she asked quietly.

"Yes. Senator Bracken. I figured that out an hour after getting the offer. It's very easy with my contacts. And as I said, I declined. Sadly, some of the other people in my line of work aren't as picky."

"Was Coonan an assassin too?" Rick asked.

"He thought he was one. That's why he used knifes. He thought that brought him closer to the assassins of old. He didn't know that it's not the weapon that makes an assassin, it's the man or woman holding it."

"What about Maddox?"

"The man who shot Miss Beckett? He was the same as Coonan, a simple hitman. But unlike Coonan, he didn't have illusions of grandeur. He knew what he was and what he was doing."

"You knew him?"

"Yes. I taught him Krav Maga. He was passable. He was better with guns though. And on top of that, he was a cruel son of a bitch. He liked torturing people. I prefer truth serum if I want information from someone."

Both Kate and Rick stayed quite at the truthful statement about Maddox' cruelty, remembering the way he had tortured Michael Smith for the file.

"Why did you train him if he was such a cruel son of a bitch, as you put it?" Rick asked.

"Because he paid me. Simple as that."

"You trained a killer." Kate pointed out.

"No, the army trained a killer. I simply trained him to fight a different way. And what he does with that knowledge is not my concern. Do you condemn a gun salesman when a man buys a gun from him and kills someone? Or a store clerk, if he sells a pencil to a woman and she rams said pencil into her husbands eye for revenge?"

"How would you suggest to help us?" Rick asked, wanting to get back on topic.

"Easy. Someone committed a crime while I was doing a job. Either it was a bad coincidence or someone who knew that I was there wanted to frame me. If the first scenario is correct then you will have apprehended a murderer and brought justice to the family. If the second scenario is true, then the result will be the same but there will be hell to pay for the responsible party."

"You want to kill the employer of the second killer?" Rick asked.

"Not necessarily. First I want to find out his reasoning. Depending on that I'll choose a fitting form of punishment."

"Are we going to see another car crash victim later?" Kate asked.

"Maybe." Dough stated, again in his cold and deadpan delivery that made Kate's hair on her neck stand up. "I also have an offer for you. I will give you something and I need two things in return."

"And what would that be?" she asked.

"You're known for being very tenacious in your work. If you have a case you won't stop investigating it until ordered to stop. Even though I usually make no mistakes doing my job, I might have missed something.

"So, in exchange for you stopping investigating the first two cases as murders, I'll give you something that will help you close about thirty to forty still open murder investigations across the nation. And I need the surveillance photo of the person entering the room of the murder victim."

"The picture is worthless, he had a face mask on. The only thing you can see is his left eye because he was turned a bit." Kate said.

"I'd like the picture anyway if you please. Just put it into a folder and I'll do the rest."

"What would stop me from investigating you after receiving the files?" she asked.

"Because you keep your word." he said confidently. "Also, you don't want to be my enemy." he added in a joyful manner, which made it sound even more menacingly.

"As much fun as it is to talk to you two, I really need to get going." Dough said and stood up.

"Wait, I wanted to ask you something else." Rick said quickly.

"Since you have been nice, and since I have used a scrambler to both disable your phone recorder and miss Becketts 911 call to her team, I can answer one or two more questions." Dough said smiling and Kate and Rick both looked shocked when they learned that this man had anticipated their moves so easily and countered them.

"Okay... the first. How did you get her gun?"

"Your safe only has an electronic lock with a 6-digit code, so breaking it was very easy. You should use another combination than her measurements, as nice as they are if the code is to be believed."

Rick chocked a bit and received a glare from Kate, as she realized for the first time since learning the code what the numbers actually represented, never having given them much thought.

"So, you heard us..." Rick started.

"No, I didn't." Dough interrupted him. "I came in after you were done."

"If you did, how would you know what we did?" Kate asked.

"You both have the glow." he said, making Rick and Kate blush.

"Ok, second question. How did you get into my apartment? Will I have to exchange the locks?" Rick asked.

"Who said that I came through the door?" Dough answered and said nothing more.

"Ok, last question. Why are you doing this? Being an assassin, I mean."

"Let me ask you something in return? Why do you write?"

"Because I'm good at it."

"See?"

"How did you become this?" Kate asked.

"Imagine being 15 years old, doing a summer job for the first time. One day, your grandparents celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary and the whole family is invited and you have the entire restaurant by yourself.

"You need to work that day so you arrive a little late. Then, as you exit the bus and walk towards the restaurant, you see two black SUVs stopping in front of the restaurant and several people exit them with automatic weapons in hand. The next thing you hear is gunfire in the restaurant your entire family is in before the people run out again and leave.

"After the shock and police interrogations, because they always believe at first you are the one responsible for it, just because you knelt in midst of your butchered family, crying like a baby, you want revenge. You already know how to fight and soon you find someone who teaches you to kill with melee and ranged weapons.

"The henchmen responsible for the shootings die painful deaths. Their boss then tells you that it was all a mistake, a case of mistaken identity. But he doesn't apologize. He's sure that you will soon be dead as soon as his men come running into his office. He gets scared as you carefully explain to him that all his men are already dead.

"Three days later, police find him dead after getting an anonymous tip. Medical examination confirms that his death took at least two days and was very, very painful thanks to a neurotoxin that paralyzed him and the flock of army ants that crawled all over his organs.

"So, Mister Castle, I'm good at what I do, just as you." Dough finishes while both Rick and Kate look on with revulsion in their faces. "Oh, I think this belongs to you." he adds and throws the gun magazine towards Kate.

She has to scramble towards it, cursing heavily which makes Rick turn towards her. After finishing reloading her gun, she lifts it and points it towards Dough. But to both their astonishment, he is gone.

"That was so awesome." Rick said to himself, earning himself another glare from Kate. She only huffed and locked the terrace door before placing her gun back into the office safe.

"Rick, get in here." she shouted from his bedroom.

Rick decided to remain quite, as he entered his bedroom, undressed and lay down on his back. He knew exactly what she needed now and wasn't disappointed when she mounted him and started riding as if her life depended on it. For the next thirty minutes, only moans could be heard, before the bedroom got quite with the sounds of two people sleeping.

* * *

After getting up the next morning, Kate was sated in body but her mind was still in turmoil. So much so that she didn't pay much attention to her outfit and ended up at work wearing tight fitting jeans and a top that showed off her curves most favorably. After catching her male co-workers stealing glances at her all morning, she started to feel embarrassed. The only one she didn't mind watching her was her boyfriend, sitting in the uncomfortable chair next to her desk.

As she had promised, she had put a copy of the surveillance photo into an envelope and waited for the pickup. A few minutes before noon, a messenger came into the bullpen, looking for her desk.

"Delivery for Detective Kate Beckett and pick up." he announces after stopping at her desk.

Without comment, Kate handed him the envelope and received another one. She signed for the delivery and the messenger left. Rick scooted over to look at the contents.

"So, what did we get?" he asked.

"Let me look through them, will you?" she answered, annoyed at his impatience. "There's a note attached."

"'I can see that the combination is spot on.'" she read, a blush creeping up her face.

"Wait a second." Rick interjected. "The messenger, was he...?"

"No, he looked different." Kate said, her face a mask of concentration as she tried to remember.

"But, with make up and fake facial hair..."

"God dammit, that was him. That was Dough." she said through clenched teeth. "Lets look what he gave us."

Kate got up and called the boys and Rick into one of the lounges and the four of them started rifling through the files they got.

* * *

"Holy crap Beckett, where did you get this?" Esposito asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah, this is amazing." Ryan agreed.

"What's amazing?" the voice of Captain Gates appeared from behind them.

"Um, Beckett got..." Ryan started.

"On a hunch I went through the records of our two non-murder victims." she interrupted Ryan. "Turns out, both their files were created the same day. August 22, 2004."

"And what is that supposed to prove? And how does it bring us closer to the murderer of the third dead person?" Gates asked.

"Before he became John Benning, he was known as Michael Irons. Victor Hernandez was formerly known as Ricardo Ortega. Both were known hitmen for the Ortega drug cartel and rumored to be responsible for 42 murders between 1996 and 2004. Ricardo Ortega was a relative of the boss. These files contain enough information to link them to all those murders. We could be able to close all those cases." Kate finished while Gates read through some of the files.

"I commend you for this, but as good a job as this is Detectives, and Mister Castle, you still have a murderer to apprehend before the trail runs cold."

"I know and I am following a lead right now, just waiting for a source to come forward. And before you ask, I can't disclose the identity." Kate said to her Captain.

"Very well then. Please proceed." Gates said and walked out.

"The question is, did they change their identities to hide from the law or to hide from the cartel?" Rick mused. "Especially since on of them is a relative of the head of the cartel. Usually, if they need to get away, they'd just be brought to Mexico to escape from US law enforcement."

"Good point. Maybe they were killed on orders from their ex-boss?" Espo said.

"I think, if their ex-boss had ordered their deaths, they would have been way more gruesome as an example to the others." Rick said and everybody stayed quiet.

"So, lunch?" Rick said, making the others laugh at his off hand comment but everyone agreed.

* * *

For the rest of the day, they went through witness statements and surveillance footage again without getting any more answers. Kate's mind was filled with possibilities, their last night's encounter with a professional killer who appeared in and disappeared from their apartment apparently at will, making her nervous although she had to admit to herself that she didn't get a bad vibe from Dough.

She allowed herself a small smile when she realized what she just had thought. Their apartment. Not Rick's apartment. It showed her that her relationship with him was already more than with anyone else she was ever with. With effort, she focused her thoughts back to the case.

Something in Dough' manner made her trust him to keep his word. She hoped that whatever he did with the photo she gave him brought some information to light that she could use. When the clock struck 6 pm, she was about to order chinese for dinner, much to Rick's dismay who wanted her to come home, when she received a message on her phone from an unknown number.

**Go home Detective. I have information for you. Delivery tomorrow at the precinct. This time I won't do it myself :)**

She was again amazed at how his manner and appearance could be deceiving. Just seeing Dough and reading a message from him ending with a smiley, she couldn't fathom that this man was a professional assassin, able to kill at will or enter a police precinct without being recognized.

"Come on Castle, lets go." Kate said to her partner and both left the precinct. On a totally unprofessional whim, Kate kissed him hard in the elevator and ran her hands over his crotch, making him a promise for the night.

* * *

The next day at 8 am, another messenger arrived with an envelope for Kate. She signed it and impatiently ripped it open, her behavior drawing interest from Ryan, Esposito and Captain Gates, who happened to walk by and together with the others stood around her desk as she emptied the contents of the envelope.

"Damn, that's one good source. Is this our suspect? Salvatore Guerrero?" Esposito commented after seeing a file of a man with a photo attached.

"Look, the file says he's a hitman." Rick said after skimming through. "These notes connect him to the Ortega cartel. Here's a note: '_Retinal identification of left eye confirms suspect to be Salvatore Guerrero. Employed by the Ortega cartel for removal of unwanted subjects.' _So, Mike Lee was murdered by the cartel. Why is that? His records didn't show any criminal background." he finished and handed the file to the boys and the Captain. When no one was looking at him, he slipped the envelope marked _For RC&KB eyes only_ into the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Maybe we missed something. Ryan, check the surveillance footage again, if anyone but the suspect visited Mike Lee during his stay. Espo, take his records and check as far back as possible. Maybe he has something in his past connecting him to something the cartel did. Also, lets put out an APB for this guy."

When everybody went to work, Rick leaned over to Kate.

"For lunch we go home." he whispered to her and tapped his jacket and winked to Kate. She nodded, showing she understood the message. Today, lunch couldn't come soon enough.

After two hours of research into Mike Lee, nothing showed him to be anything but a respectable business man and father of two. Kate sat back in her chair and closed her eyes when Rick cleared his throat and tapped his watch. Nodding, Kate got up, put her jacket on and left with him.

* * *

"So, lets see what he wanted only us to see." Rick said and took the envelope out of his jacket after they entered the loft. Inside was a handwritten letter. Rick started reading out loud.

"_My employer was NOT the Ortega cartel, rather a wealthy relative of one of the victims of a hit. Ortega boss got wind of my job and had Mister Lee killed out of revenge in hope of me being framed. Be advised. Cartel knows you're probably on to their man. Unknown if they pull him out or order him to cut loose ends. Warning: DO NOT put out an APB for him. Doing that could cause a possible hit on one or both of you as a warning. Target would disappear right after. Will do anything to get to him before he gets to you should that happen._"

"Great, now we're possibly on a hit list of a major crime cartel." Kate huffed and flopped down on his couch. Despite having lost her appetite, she ate something more to satisfy Rick than her stomach. They spent the rest of their lunch break with meaningless conversation before they had to get back to the precinct. Both made their way to the underground garage, where Rick had rented a spot for her car.

"Do you really think this cartel would order the death of a law enforcement officer just to send a sign?" Rick asked her.

"The cartel won't but nobody said something about a little unordered work." came a voice from behind them. Kate turned faster than she ever had, ripping her gun out of the holster. But she still was to late. A hart hit to her stomach made her fold over, knocking her down, her gun flying out of her hand. She could dimly see Rick turning, the assailant, who turned out to be Salvatore Guerrero, delivering a hard punch into Rick's sternum with the gun handle.

Rick stumbled backwards against a car, making its alarm go off and preventing him to fall. He lunged forward, tackling their assailant to the ground and rolling with him, throwing desperate punches that were all easily blocked. Kate saw Guerrero bucking upwards, propelling Rick off him who landed with a soft thud on the garage pavement. Guerrero stood up, gun in hand and pointed it at Rick's head.

"First him, then you. Nobody messes with me." he said coldly to Kate.

Everything went into slow motion for Kate. She saw the gun pointed at the head of the man she loved, the hitman's finger contracting on the trigger. Before it could press though, a shadow flew over Kate. A stone! It hit Guerrero's hand, knocking the gun out of it. He only had a second to wonder what happened when a body slammed into him.

Kate had seen a lot of martial arts movies. Good and bad ones. She appreciated the work of Jet Li or Jacky Chan, their choreographies a work of art and very believable. But she knew that it was pretend. They didn't hurt others intentionally in those movies nor wanted they to kill their enemy. But what she saw unfold before her unbelieving eyes was something she never believed possible. Two people fighting to kill.

The fight lasted about thirty seconds. But during that time both opponents threw about 150 punches and counter strikes, whip fast, precise martial arts training competing for dominance. This was a physical war rarely seen by people, each punch, each kick a potential kill, every block looking as if it had broken a bone.

Dough dodged a brutal looking swing of Guerrero, driving his fist several times into his ribs and even Kate could hear one snapping with every punch. Dough chopped at Guerrero's exposed neck but the hitman caught it, and viced around to snap the wrist. Dough somersaulted out of the hold and kicked Guerrero's leg as he landed. The hitman turned his fall into a leg sweep, which forced Dough to leap over them.

Guerrero jumped up and drove his fist towards Dough's exposed face. Dough twisted his body in a way Kate thought impossible for a human outside of the matrix and evaded the fist, his left leg striking up and breaking another of Guerrero's ribs who stumbled back in pain.

Before the hitman could recover, Dough was back up with a gun suddenly in his hands. In the echoing expanse of the underground garage, a shot rang out, hitting Guerrero in the chest. He looked down at the wound, a look of incredulity on his face before falling down dead.

Kate looked at Dough, who helped Rick to his feet before coming over to her and doing the same.

"Didn't expected him to act that soon. Seems you have a mole somewhere who alerted him to the APB." Dough said and handed the gun to Kate. She was surprised to see that it was hers.

"How do we explain this?" she asked. "Nobody would believe that I or Rick beat him up before shooting him."

"Then don't." Dough said. "When he came down, he was already hurt. He raised his gun to kill you and you shot him before he could pull the trigger. I disabled the cameras before coming in here so nobody saw the fight. But I should leave before someone investigates the car alarm."

Kate realized for the first time that the alarm of the car that Rick stumbled against was still going, filling the garage with a piercing shriek. How she could have turned that out all this time was beyond here.

When the police entered the building, they found Rick and Kate leaning against her car, holding ice packs the doorman gave them against their chests where Guerrero had hit them, along with the corpse of said hitman. There was no trace of John Dough.

The team spent the rest of the week following up the leads in the files, helping the LAPD, SFPD and CPD to close 43 cold murder cases.

Two weeks later, Rick and Kate sat on his couch, watching the news as they reported the death of Samuel Ortega, alleged head of the powerful Ortega crime cartel, his body found in his bathtub. It was ruled an accident, a slip in the tub which lead to a skull fracture and internal brain hemorrhage. All of his lieutenants were dead as well, seeming to have killed each other over the question of succession.

Rick and Kate turned to each other when they heard that, a knowing look passing between them.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this took so long. The guy living two floors above me saw it fit to set his kitchen on fire and we had to evacuate the building for a few days until the inspectors were satisfied that the water from the fire fighters didn't compromise the building integrity. But, now I'm back in my apartment ^^**

**Review please.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: This one is set in late Season 5, after Still but before The Human Factor. And by the private wishes of several readers (you could have reviewed too you know ^^) the return of a guest character.**

**Chapter is rated M for security, some light smut in there. If you want, read on. If you can't bear it, grow up :P  
**

**Disclaimer: It should be obvious that anyone writing here doesn't own the franchise and no one is making any money by posting stories here but the idiotic justice system of the US demands that I declare that I don't own Castle or else I could get sued.**

* * *

"Okay, I think, it's time to head back to the precinct and file your reports." Captain Gates commanded once Rick and Kate had rejoined them after their passionate kiss on the street.

"Yes, Captain." Kate said and started walking towards her car.

"Not you Beckett." Gates said. "The paramedics want to check on you first."

"I'm fine Captain." Kate said.

"You might feel fine but lets go with the regulations on this one. I will take Detectives Ryan and Esposito with me and when you're done, you will rejoin us at the precinct."

"Understood." Kate acquiesced and headed towards the ambulance, Rick in tow.

Twenty minutes later they were on their way, Kate driving as usual and Rick fiddling with the buttons on the radio.

"Could you stop screwing up my radio settings?" Kate asked, the smile on her lips showing him she wasn't really angry.

"Sorry, I need something to occupy my left hand."

"Why?"

"So I stop myself from doing this." Rick said and ran his left over her thigh, getting very close to a very intimate area, making Kate's breath hitch.

"Stop that, I'm driving." she complained but almost automatically she opened her legs for him as far as she could without letting go of the pedals.

"I can see that you want to me stop." he said smiling and put his hands exactly over her core, starting to rub it softly over her.

Kate's eyelids started to flutter and her hips bucked forwards, despite her best efforts to stop herself. She could just take one hand off the wheel and swat his away but the primitive side of her brain wouldn't let her.

"I almost lost you today." Rick said, while he opened her zipper and brought his hand under her panties. He slowly rubbed her, making her moan and buck even harder into his hand. "And it took a life and death situation for you to finally tell me you love me."

Kate didn't know if that was supposed to be a statement or an admonishment. But right now she didn't care because he was driving her crazy. Instead of saying something, she drove the car into an abandoned building. She didn't know what it used to be and she didn't care. Checking if there was a line of sight to the street and finding none, she grabbed Rick's wrist and took his hand out of her pants.

Having her glare at him, Rick started to sweat slightly, wondering if he did something wrong. Before he could apologize, Kate jumped off her seat onto his lap. Fusing her lips to his, she shoved his tongue into his mouth, punishing it. Her hand went down to his crotch, rubbing his erection through the cloth and unzipping his pants like he did with hers.

Not waiting long, she unbuttoned his and her pants and after some contorting movements, both sat on the passenger seat in their underwear, Kate in his lap. Not bothering to take it off, Rick just shoved her panties aside and freed his manhood, allowing Kate so take him inside her.

For the next twenty minutes, the abandoned building was filled with the sounds of moaning, yelling out and the squeaking of punished shocks. They finally got into the precinct with a slightly disheveled look and a glow that anyone realized what it represented. Luckily, no one said anything.

* * *

For the next four hours, Kate did a mind numbing amount of paperwork while Castle played games on his phone or made notes on his pad. Turns out, if you almost die on your job, the number of forms to fill out doubles. Now she could believe her own jokes about the amount of paperwork she had to fill out if she shot Castle.

During her writing, Castle was called into Captain Gates' office. They talked for about ten minutes and after Rick came back out, he didn't say a word even after a Beckett style glare at him. Unfortunately, his smile made her glare ineffective, so she decided to let the whole thing go.

Finally finished, she brought her paper stack to the Captain.

"Sit down Detective." Captain Gates ordered her before she could leave. Kate did so.

"How are you feeling Detective?" the Captain asked.

"I'm fine."

"Really? Are you really fine or does this have anything to do with what you did with him on your way to the precinct?" Gates asked, pointing to Rick who was sitting at Kate's desk.

Kate blushed furiously and frantically searched her brain for some excuse but it seemed that the Captain knew exactly what happened.

"Save it Detective, you took way too long to get back here. But, seeing what almost happened to you I can understand it. Am I to understand that your relationship with Mr. Castle has vastly improved?"

"Yes Sir, it has." Kate answered and couldn't hide a smile.

"Good. For that matter, as soon as you leave this building, you are on vacation, I don't want to see you for at least a week."

"But Sir..." Kate started.

"No buts. You haven't taken a vacation since I got here and it is time that you do. Everyone needs some down time from their job at some point. Now go home Detective Beckett."

"Yes Sir." Kate huffed and left. She grabbed her jacket and stormed out Rick following her. When they were in the elevator she turned to him.

"You went behind my back and told Gates to put me on vacation?" she asked him, furious.

"As a matter of fact, I didn't." he replied calmly.

"Then what were you talking about in her office?"

"She asked me if I could make you take a vacation. And I answered her, that you would take one as soon as she ordered you to. Otherwise it wouldn't be very hard to convince you."

"And couldn't you have asked me if I wanted a vacation?"

"Would you have said yes?"

"Maybe."

"See? Already the uncertainty. That way you get some free time. And I have a great idea where to go."

"Where?"

"It's a surprise. You'll see when I hand you the airplane ticket." Rick said smiling.

"Fine." Kate huffed. "What's for dinner?"

"Chinese? We can pick some up on the way home." Rick suggested.

"Great idea. Lets go." she said and both got into her car.

Two hours later, after eating a delicious dinner with Alexis before she left for her dorm again and watching a movie, Rick and Kate made ready for bed. After brushing her teeth she stepped into the bedroom wearing one of Rick's shirts and watched him making notes on his pad. She stood in front of the bed, watching him.

"Like what you see?" he asked. "It's a little creepy though."

"Now you know how I felt during the last four years." she said smiling. "Still not telling me where we're going tomorrow?"

"Nope, still a surprise. But you should pack light and swim wear."

"When are we going?"

"Plane leaves at 1 pm. Plenty of time to pack before noon."

Their gazes locked and both held it. Rick broke eye contact first, letting his gaze run down her body to her long and naked legs.

"You know, I really love it when you wear one of my shirts." he said.

"And nothing else." she responded and smiled when his eyes went wide.

Without saying more, she pulled the shirt over her head and practically pounced on him, fusing her lips to his and invading his mouth, like she did in the car. Without looking down at him, she fumbled his shorts off, feeling his erection growing to the impressive size she came to love.

"I know I have difficulties saying those words. But I love you. I'm better at showing it to you. So let me do it." she said, and sunk down on him, a groan escaping her as she got used to his size. After half a minute she started moving on him, going forward and back, their mouths still together and tongues still battling. Then she sat up and did what she loved most. She rode him with abandon, climaxing violently four times before taking him with her over the edge.

After their coital encounter both were lying in bed with Rick spooning Kate. After half an hour she could feel that he was on the verge of falling asleep but her mind was in turmoil about a very specific thing.

"Rick?" she asked, lightly elbowing him to shake him awake.

"What?" he startled.

"Am I not good enough in bed for you?"

"Huh? You're amazing in bed. Where does that come from?"

"Well, like just now. I rode you hard and fast but it still took me almost half an hour to make you come."

"And you think it's because you're not good? God Kate, you're amazing in bed. If I let myself go, it'd be over after two minutes tops when you ride me like that."

"Really?"

"Kate." he sighed. "I love you. I love your body. And I love to be with you. Like we are right now, you're body molded to mine, like they were made to fit. And the sex is amazing. I want it to last. That's why I try to last as long as possible."

His hands started roaming around her body, making her shiver.

"You have great breasts. I love the fact that your nipples get hard when I rub them like they are inviting me to bite them. You have beautiful legs that go on forever. A perfect ass that I could have my hands on all the time. And here..." he said and his hands went to her core, his fingers parting her folds and rubbing around her heat. "this place is wonderful. It's hot and so tight. And I love the fact that you shave down there. Makes the foreplay even better." he finished while continuing to rub her.

Kate started moaning hard and got wet again. Feeling Rick getting hard again she knew what was coming, when he turned them around, making her lie on her stomach while he kept molded to her back. His lips on her neck, sucking her pulse point, he entered her from behind and Kate's world went white with pleasure.

The following morning, they got up a bit tired but ate a nice breakfast and started packing. The time flew by as the organized chaos in the loft was put into suitcases, Kate packing a skimpy bikini along with some regular ones when Rick wasn't looking. After an early lunch they took a cab and an hour later they were in the air.

* * *

"That really was a wonderful idea Rick, I really needed that." Kate declared, sitting opposite her boyfriend at a table of a beachfront restaurant.

After Kate had stepped on that bomb and during the situation finally verbalized her love for Rick, their relationship had vastly improved. Gates knew about them and was somewhat fine with it as long as they kept it out of the precinct.

Rick only smiled and laid his hand on hers over the table, both turning their faces towards the ocean. The warm sun and soothing breeze caressed their skin and Rick silently admired the view of the woman he loved in a sundress, her long legs showing favorably.

One thing he could cross off the list was his desire to watch Kate in a bikini. Sure, he had seen her naked numerous times but there is something about beautiful women in bikinis that he couldn't quite put his fingers on. The fact that this bikini was very skimpy was an added bonus. Although he could have done without all those men on the beach ogling his girlfriend.

But he had to give it to her, she made quite an impact of showing those people that she was taken. She just grabbed him and kissed him hard, showing all that they could look but only one could touch.

Now they were enjoying the sunset, sipping delicious coffee and enjoying some strawberry ice cream.

"Do you realize that we're here for two days already and no murder victim has fallen onto our balcony or through our door?" Rick asked, getting a laugh from Kate at his comment about their first attempt to go on a then secret vacation to the Hamptons.

"Don't say that. You'll jinx it." she responded with a grin. "Want to head back?"

"Sure." he said. He paid the bill and they left the restaurant.

"Lets walk back." Kate said.

"Are you sure? It's three miles to the hotel."

"Yeah, the weather is so nice. And it'll raise our appetite for the delicious dinner the hotel provides."

"Ok, lets go."

Rick extended his hand which Kate gladly took. Neither had an idea that their stroll would turn out to be anything but calm.

* * *

"I feel like we're being followed." Rick said, still walking hand in hand with Kate.

"Me too." she admitted. "Maybe it's a fan of yours?"

"I hope so. Would be better than the alternative. Do you have your gun with you?"

"No. You know it's my service weapon. I'm not allowed to take it with me privately."

When they turned a corner and reached the entrance of an alley, their followers pounced. One attacker tackled Kate and shoved her into the darkness of the alley while it took two of them to handle Rick's bulk. Despite Kate breaking the nose of her attacker, they both were soon with their backs against the wall and a gun in their faces.

There were four of them, heavily tattooed with gang marks, one of them holding his bloody nose, two unassuming men and a large man who was holding the gun, screaming at them in spanish. Rick couldn't understand it but Kate understood parts of it and realized that the screaming man was yelling about someone they are supposed to know who did something wrong to their boss or something.

Kate tried to explain in broken spanish that they didn't know what they were talking about with Rick being scared out of his mind by the gun in his face. Before Kate could sort her spanish, the large guy with the gun started screaming even louder, this time in pain.

Both Rick and Kate realized that the gun was gone while the guy who had been holding it held his hand, blood seeping through his fingers. The others looked around them, blabbering at a figure at the mouth of the alley, the light of the street only making is outline visible. When one of them started closing in on the figure, a knife flew by him, taking part of his earlobe with it. The guy stopped and started to scream as well, blood running down the side of his face and all four of them ran away.

Rick and Kate looked at the silhouette at the alley mouth and then to the other side. They saw two knifes stuck in a wooden board, the gun hanging from one of them and the tip of the trigger finger of the gun holder stuck on it.

"That was so cool." Rick said excitedly. "And a bit gross." he added, looking at the piece of finger.

"You two should really watch your backs, you know that?" a familiar voice said.

Both turned towards the alley mouth and saw the silhouette closing in on them. When the guy came under the cone of light emitted by the alley lamp to retrieve his knifes, Rick and Kate looked into the somewhat familiar face of John Dough.

* * *

After the initial shock wore off, they invited Dough into their hotel room for dinner, an invitation that he, to their surprise, accepted. Now they were sitting in their luxurious suite, eating a delicious meal composed of lobster, salmon and other seafood along with an expensive assortment of wine. Both realized that Dough never touched the alcohol and kept drinking water or soda.

"I owe you an apology." Dough said at one point during the dinner.

"For what?" Rick asked.

"For putting you in that situation. These gang guys assaulted you because of your connection to me, however fleeting it is. Someone affiliated with them must have recognized you and connected you to me."

"How are we supposed to be connected to you? We were investigating you." Kate asked.

"I bet someone of some cartel saw me here. As I told you before, it's possible that there is a mole somewhere in New York working for them and reports of your investigation into me leaked to the cartels. Maybe they got a picture of you two and me together. They added two and two and got five."

"But what did you do to make them want you?"

"I think you already know that. You might have seen it in the news."

"Samuel Ortega?"

"Correct."

"You killed him?" Rick asked.

"As I understand it, he died of an internal brain hemorrhage after slipping in the shower. And his underlings killed each other over the question of succession." Dough said smiling.

"If that's the case, why are they targeting you?" Kate asked.

"I may have been on their compound the day that happened. And maybe I didn't disable all their security cameras."

"Then what are you still doing in Mexico?" Rick asked.

"Can't a man take a little vacation?" Dough answered, earning a blank look from both Rick and Kate.

"Is the population number of this city going to be lower when your vacation ends?" Rick asked again.

"Who knows? There are accidents every day."

"Please tell us. I'm dying of curiosity." Rick said.

"Yes, please tell him. If you don't, our vacation will be over, because he will obsess over the reasons for your presence." Kate interjected.

"I really shouldn't. It could endanger you."

"We're already in danger, if the little incident an hour ago is and indication." Rick said.

"True. And you might be able to help me." Dough said and sighed. "Okay, I'm on a job. Somebody was very impressed the way I took down the Ortega cartel, especially after several stacks of very sensitive documents found their way to the both the Mexican and US departments of justice, allowing them to unravel their entire operation, not just the drug side.

"Now, they want another cartel taken down. As you might imagine, the leader of this cartel has become very apprehensive about this unknown person who was close to Ortega the day he had his accident." Dough finished.

"How could we help you?" Kate asked.

"You could pick something up for me. Don't worry, it's only a small package. I'm kind of a wanted man right now, especially in some circles."

"We can do that."

"Good. And is it possible for me to crash here tonight? Even if it's just to make sure you're safe. I'm afraid that they might try again. Especially since we are again in contact. I don't know if those guys in the alley recognized me but you can never be sure. I have several safehouses here but it might be hard to actually get there."

"Well, we do have a second bedroom in this suite, so it's not that of a problem." Rick said and looked at Kate who just nodded.

"There's something more I wanted to ask you." Rick said.

"Yes?"

"How did you get into my apartment in New York? The door wasn't tampered with."

"Maintenance access, going up the air shafts and coming down the terrace. Very easy when you don't lock your terrace door."

"Ah. So I will lock my terrace door every night from now on..." Rick said.

"I have a question." Kate said. "We put you in holding the day you visited us. How did you get out without raising any alarm? Normally, an APB should have gone out for you after breaking out of jail."

"It's amazing what you can do with a smartphone these days, isn't it?" Dough answered smiling at Kate who just sat there dumbfounded.

"Excuse me?"

"The security system is not that hard to circumvent. Was easy to arrange my release."

"Wow." Rick said, as dumbfounded as Kate. "You have quite the skills with computers. Never thought of a job in that regard?"

"I got this knowledge in the course of my life. It's something of a necessity to acquire certain knowledge in my line of work."

"Can I use you in one of my books?"

"Sure. As long as nothing particular about me enters it that could reveal my identity."

"Nice." Rick said excitedly.

"Do you have safehouses everywhere?" Kate asked, remembering his remark earlier.

"Not me personally, I use the available ones."

"Who makes them available."

"Who do you think hires me most of the time? Who do you think gives me an unlimited green card for almost every country I'm in? Who provides me with weapons? I can't bring my arsenal everywhere I go."

"The government?" Rick asked.

"Parts of it. The clandestine ones. Of course, if I ever get caught, they would deny every knowledge of me which is normal. No government agency would admit to hiring an assassin to take out a citizen or worse, a political or military leader of your own or even another country."

"Assassins are hired to take out foreign politicians?" Rick asked.

"Of course. Think about how often the CIA tried to take out Castro or Hussein. The problem is how you take the target out. Imagine an assassin gets the order to take out the leader of Iran. If you kill him with a bullet, you probably make him a martyr and the populace will follow his ideals even more. If you kill him by making it look like an accident, his followers would grieve but not rally behind his corpse."

"Makes a twisted kind of sense." Kate said.

They called room service to clean the dishes, with Dough hiding in the bathroom as the woman did her job. Kate knew that he did it to hide his identity, the fact that there were three sets of dishes on the table told everything about the number of people in the room.

While Dough used the bathroom, Kate and Rick enjoy some wine and the cool evening breeze on the suite balcony. Both turned around and went in when they heard heir guest coming out. Kate gasped audibly when she saw Dough with a towel around his waist.

It wasn't the fact that he had rock hard abs or amazingly defined muscles in his arms and legs that told about a wiry strength that belied his appearance. What amazed and shocked her more was the amount of scars he had on his body. Both the type of scars made by blades and the punctual scars made by bullets which painfully reminded her of her own. Dough of course realized what she was looking at.

"Yes, I also have scars. But none of those are younger than 8 years." he stated.

"Where did you get those?" Kate asked "You must have been shot like 20 times."

"38 times as a matter of fact. I have some more on my back. These two" he said and pointed to one on his shoulder and one on his hip "I got from single shots. The other 36 came from a guy who opened up on me with a automatic pistol with a 35 round magazine with one extra bullet in the chamber."

"How did you survive this?"

"Determination and sheer dumb luck. When that guy opened up on me, I started spinning after the first impact, that's why I have them around my body. All those bullets hit me in places that missed organs. I was in a hospital for half a year after that with the doctors always praising me as a miracle for surviving with 36 bullets in my body. And the slashing wounds you can imagine where they came from. You saw me fight, imagine this with a blade."

"Are you in any pain?" Rick asked.

"Only the usual that comes with old bullet wounds. Nothing that can't be ignored with discipline and exercise."

"I can't pull myself up a ledge because of my scar." Kate said quietly.

"Still, the only reason for you to be alive is Maddox' twisted sense of perfection. He always praised himself on hitting a target dead center." Dough said and pointed to Kate's chest where the bullet scar was visible. "Had he really thought of a perfect kill shot, you wouldn't have survived."

"What do you mean?" Rick asked.

"If he had targeted her left chest around here" he said and put a hand on his own left chest, about one and a half inch left of where Kate's scar was "your heart would have been completely destroyed. There would have been no way for you to be saved."

Rick took Kate in his arms when he realized the effect this conversation had on her.

"I'm sorry if I upset you." Dough said and retreated towards the other bedroom.

"It's okay. It's just a tough memory."

"Believe me, I know." Dough replied, went into his room and closed the door behind him.

"He didn't even say good night." Rick muttered and pulled Kate with him into their room.

"Are you okay?" he asked her after they got into bed.

"Yes. It was just hard to have to remember that particular event."

"I can imagine. That was the day I almost lost you." Rick whispered and kissed Kate on her cheek from his position. She turned around in his arms and hugged him tight, not wanting to let go. She kissed him on the mouth, deepening it immediately and roaming around his body with her hands, giving Rick an idea what she wanted.

"Is that such a good idea?" he asked. "We have a guest."

"Than we will have to be quiet, won't we." she answered, dead serious.

"Oh, I can do quiet." he said and rolled them around, getting on top with her legs spread apart. Not bothering to take off his shorts or her panties he just shoved both aside and entered her in one fluid motion, swallowing her moans in his mouth, his lips never leaving hers. It was a good thing he did, Kate thought, because despite her best efforts, she wouldn't have been able to stay quiet.

Later, after an hour of reaffirming their relationship and survival in various positions, both were lying in each others arms, enjoying the warmth their bodies exuded, the room illuminated by the bright full moon. Their rest was cut short, when their bedroom door was kicked open and a massive man was standing in the frame, pointing a shotgun at them.

* * *

**A/N: And Cliffhanger. I know, I'm being evil again. You don't review, you don't get the whole story at once :D (sorry Torontosun, you deserve all of the story at once ^^) But don't worry, it will come soon.**

**Review please :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**And now the conclusion. Hope you like it :)**

**Disclaimer: The usual**

* * *

_Later, after an hour of reaffirming their relationship and survival in various positions, both were lying in each others arms, enjoying the warmth their bodies exuded, the room illuminated by the bright full moon. Their rest was cut short, when their bedroom door was kicked open and a massive man was standing in the frame, pointing a shotgun at them._

* * *

Letting out a scream of surprise, Rick and Kate sat up, with Kate covering her topless upper body with the blanket. After a few seconds of nothing happening, they looked at each other and then the gunman in confusion. Only then did Kate realize that he had a mask on.

"Don't worry, he couldn't move even if his life depended on it. Which it kind of does." the voice of their guest came from behind the gunman, right before the owner of the voice appeared.

"What did you do to him?" Kate asked.

"Highly concentrated, fast working paralyzing agent. Made from the poison of a south american spider." Dough answered, and dragged the gunman into the main room of the suite. "Get dressed and come out here. We have work to do." he called from the outside.

Rick and Kate got out of bed and put on clothes. The thought of being surprised by a maniac with a gun when you are only wearing panties made Kate blush and somewhat relieved that they allowed Dough to stay. It was a little unnerving for Kate that they had to be saved twice in one day by a professional killer, despite the fact that said person never showed any ill will towards them.

After putting on shoes, they joined Dough in the main room. He had propped up the gunman at the table and bound him to the back of the chair he was sitting on so his upper body wouldn't fall on the table. It was only then that Kate noticed the other two people lying unbound on the floor in the doorway to Dough's bedroom. She raised an eyebrow to him.

"Put the same stuff into them. Don't worry. Now lets see..."

With that, he went to the sitting gunman and put a small case onto the table that resembled a toolbox.

"What the hell is that thing?" Rick asked as he saw the contraption Dough took out of the case.

"It's an injector combined with a skin regenerator. See this little vial on the top?" Dough asked and pointed to the small vial that contained a light blue liquid. "This is a substance that regenerates the skin after you took out the needle of the injector. That way you can disguise the fact that you injected something into a body. A heroin addict could fool someone into believing him he doesn't do it when the obvious marks are missing on his body."

"It looks like the miniature pistol Will Smith used in Men in Black." Rick commented and earned himself an eyeroll from both Kate and Dough.

Without preamble and to Kate and Rick's revulsion he first rammed the injector into the jugular of the gunman before changing needle and vial only to ram another injection into his jaw. The guy began to scream and yell, which earned him a slap on the face from Dough. That alone didn't shut him up but one look into the eyes of the man who slapped him did the trick. Dough for his part just calmly sat down opposite him as the man's glazed eyes started to clear.

"What did you inject him with?" Kate asked.

"The first injection is a substance only known as SP-117. It's a russian developed truth serum that works like the others but it has none of the side effects like nausea and the victim has no recollection afterward. Kind of like high doses of scopolamine. The second injection counteracts the paralyzing agent I gave him earlier. But it works very locally so only the jaw muscles can move again."

With no more explanation, he turned to the gunman.

"What's your name?"

"... Eduardo Tahibi." the gunman said after much effort not to.

"Okay Eduardo. Do you work for the cartel?"

"Yes."

"Who sent you?"

"My boss."

"What's his name?"

"Tuco Ramirez."

" Is he the highest boss or your direct superior?"

"Direct one."

"And who does he report to? Who's the leader of your cartel?"

It was obvious to Rick and Kate that the gunman was trying hard not to answer the question. But the drugs coursing through his system made all his efforts futile.

"Nico Salamandra." Eduardo blurted out.

The name caused a sharp intake of breath in Kate. The name Nico Salamandra was a legend in law enforcement circles. A phantom. No one has ever laid eyes on that person, not even his closest lieutenants. He ruled with an iron fist, enemies or investigating agents disappeared without a trace only to reappear dead with their bodies mutilated as a warning to others.

Both the mexican and american authorities have placed high bounties on information that lead to capture of him. To his credit, John Dough seemed unfazed by the prospect of taking him on. But Kate was very nervous. She and Rick again got dragged into something that was, much to her chagrin, way over their heads.

"And where would I find Nico Salamandra?" Dough asked.

"I don't know."

"How did your direct supervisor get his orders?"

"A courier sent them."

"And how does the courier get them?"

"I don't know."

"Can you describe the courier?"

"No, she always comes with a motorcycle and never takes off her helmet."

"She? How do you know it is a woman?"

"Visible breast bulges under the leather."

"Okay. What was your exact order?"

"To kill you and your two associates."

Dough turned his head towards Rick and Kate and shot them an apologetic look. It seemed Kate's prediction had come true and they both were already knee deep in danger.

"How did you know where to find me?"

"Informants on the street saw you enter here. And his name is known to the boss." the gunman said and pointed his head towards Castle.

"Weren't you worried that the surveillance cameras filmed you coming up here?"

"That's what the masks are for."

"If you had succeeded, what would have happened?"

"We would have returned and our boss would have ordered to courier back to report your death to Salamandra."

"So no one is ever in direct contact with Salamandra?"

"Not that I know of. I have no idea if the courier meets the boss or if she picks up the orders from drop boxes."

Without acknowledging Eduardo anymore, Dough checked his watch. got up and made his way over to Rick and Kate.

"Well, that could have worked out better. Makes my job a bit harder when no one knows how the boss looks like."

"What happens now?" Kate asked.

"I will find Tuco Ramirez and question him. I can try to get in contact with the courier and tail her."

"I mean, what will happen with these three? Will you kill them now?"

"No, I did that half an hour ago when I injected them with the paralyzing agent."

"What?" Rick asked, shocked.

"Yeah, it works inwards. The first thing to get paralyzed are the outer muscles so you can't move. Then the paralysis spreads inwards. After about thirty minutes, it reaches the heart and lungs. The victim dies of cardiac arrest."

As if on cue, when Dough finished his explanation, Eduardo's head dropped. The restraints were keeping his body up but the way the head lolled around she knew he just dropped dead.

"Great, how do we explain three dead bodies in our suite?" Rick asked.

"We don't." Dough answered. "Come on, we have work to do. You put on some gloves." he told them and both hurried to comply. Dough went to the bodies and injected something into all three of them and then took out a small notebook and started typing.

"What are you doing?" Kate asked.

"Hacking into the surveillance system of this hotel. Now please be quiet, I have to concentrate." he said and went back to his work. They waited in silence for two minutes.

"Aha. Got it." Dough said. "We're in luck. They came up the eastern stairwell and the camera on this floor covering it has been broken for two days. Come on."

Dough jumped up and went to the other two men who were still lying on the floor into his bedroom. Without hesitation he grabbed one and threw him over his shoulder and picked up the other by the belt. Kate again was amazed by the strength he displayed.

"Mister Castle, take the big guy. Don't forget to cut the restraints first. Detective, you will stand guard. And for heavens sake be quiet out there. The last thing we need is another guest sticking his head out the door and seeing us."

Rick manhandled the big guy over his shoulder and both followed Dough into the hallway. They hurried towards the stairwell Dough had mentioned and Kate was mesmerized by the way the assassin moved. Rick next to her puffed and you could hear his footsteps on the carpet. But even though Dough was right in front of them carrying two bodies, she couldn't hear a sound. No hard breathing, no sounds of a footstep.

When they reached the stairwell, Dough went down halfway and dropped the bodies. He mentioned for Rick to do the same and after a minute he had lain them out in a manner that looked as if they had walked single file up the stairs and had dropped dead at the same time. Satisfied with the layout, Dough hurried them back into their suite and got back to his notebook.

"What are you doing now?" Kate asked.

"Manipulating the recordings. Before we went out, I looped the hallway camera so it wouldn't record us moving the bodies. Now I only have to delete the part of the recording that show them entering this floor and nobody will know that they were ever here. As far as their investigation is concerned, they got up the stairwell but between floor three and four and they suddenly died."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, thankfully it's very easy here. The surveillance system that they use records thirty minutes and saves them on their server. So each day consists of 24 videos each thirty minutes long. I just have to delete the one showing them on this floor and replace it with another. Then a little tweaking of the time stamp and we're good to go."

"But if their coroner is any good, they will know that they died of a toxin."

"They would, but before hacking into their system I injected them with a masking agent that put their time of injection to twelve hours before their death. For them, they got injected with a toxin that stopped their heart twelve hours after injection."

"Won't they find the masking agent?"

"Not if they don't know what exactly to look for. It gets masked by the body's own hormones."

"Good lord, is there nothing you don't think of?" Kate asked, exasperated.

"If you want to survive in my line of work, you can't have police investigating all your hits. Especially in today's world where everything gets recorded. If some medical examiner places the time and cause of a death to a specific time and I get recorded close to this place, I become a person of interest. If that happens too often, my career is over. Although most of my hits appear as accidents or natural.

"Okay, I'm done. Nobody will know they were ever on this floor or this room."

"What happens now?" Rick asked.

"Go back to bed. When you wake up tomorrow I will be gone. I will leave the address of the place where you need to pick up my package and where to leave it. After that, I'd advise you to abort your vacation and return home. The fact that three people died in this hotel tonight under strange circumstances won't make your departure suspicious."

"I think, we will do that." Rick said and went into their bedroom. Kate hesitated and turned to Dough.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How many people have you killed in your life?"

"Are you really asking for my number?" Dough asked and Kate couldn't help but smile at his choice of words. She said the same to Rick during the Michael Bailey case. Although in her case the number represented something else.

"Kind of, yeah."

"You don't want to know. You really don't." Dough said with a sigh and looked out the balcony window.

"That high?"

Dough only shook his head and went to his bedroom. Kate looked after him and went to Rick and hers, joining him in bed and quickly falling asleep.

* * *

After dreaming of people walking into their bedroom, shooting them, strangling them, always doing something bad to them, Kate woke up when dawn was outside the window and after getting up she realized that Dough had kept his word and was gone. His bed was made, the room tidy. Nothing in the suite showed anything that a third person has ever been here.

If it weren't for the piece of paper with an address and an envelope on the table, Kate might have thought the whole thing had been a dream. She picked up the paper and sighed before making her way back to the bedroom and snuggled back into Rick's arms. She couldn't fall back to sleep but she enjoyed the warmth Rick excluded.

She didn't know how long she had been lying there when Rick woke up. He kissed her good morning and after their morning routine they ordered their breakfast and discussed their plans for the day.

"Here are the addresses where we get the package and where we have to drop it off." Kate said to Rick as he stuffed another piece of bacon into his mouth.

"Is there a time on it? Or can we do that today on our leisure?" Rick asked.

"No, but I guess we shouldn't wait too long to do it. We're supposed to give this envelope to whoever is there at the pickup."

"Want to do it after lunch? We could combine it with a little shopping and the streets are pretty full so we hopefully avoid any more attacks."

"Sure, sounds great. But I think we should abort our vacation as Dough suggested. We're too high profile here at the moment and the last thing I want is to watch you die."

"I also would hate to see you die... again." Rick said quietly, remembering the day Kate was shot.

"Do you think we're somehow cursed? Every time we try to go on vacation, we're getting pulled into something."

"I don't know. But during the Hamptons thing at least we weren't in mortal danger. Next time you take a vacation, I'm taking you on a cruise."

"If you take me on a cruise, the ship will be boarded by pirates." Kate replied with a smile.

"Don't invite the devil." Rick said but had to laugh as well.

They enjoyed the rest of their breakfast in silence and made their way into the hallway. They noticed the police tape on the eastern stairwell. Looking at each other they made their way to the western stairwell and exited the hotel.

* * *

"This time it doesn't feel like we're being followed." Rick said as he walked hand in hand with Kate.

"Yeah. We're close to the place where we have to pick up Dough's package." Kate said and pulled Rick towards a small shop that looked like an antique store.

When they entered it, they were surrounded by old things. The air smelt like a mixture of dust and musk. The clerk behind the counter looked like his wares, old and also smelling of musk. Kate handed him the envelope and he disappeared into his backroom. Kate watched around and saw Castle play with some of the merchandise, making her smile. Before she could say something, the clerk came back and handed her a small box. She got Castle and they headed back out to the streets.

"Where to now?" Rick asked.

"The address for the drop is about two miles from here. Lets stay on the busy streets."

They made their way through the streets, dodging groups of other tourists and over eager street vendors. Kate couldn't help but notice herself to be on the lookout for anything. Every street vendor or tourist could be a hidden cartel member or informant. She shook her head at her suspicions. One day with John Dough and her paranoia was in full swing.

Despite her misgivings, their trip was uneventful, the drop point nothing but an old mail box. This measure was so old it might even work. If she didn't know Dough was the best of his trade, she would have pegged him for an amateur for choosing such a poor spot.

"Come on Rick, we're done. Lets head back and pack. I want to be out of this country tonight." Kate said.

"Right. Lets hurry. I have a feeling that something bad will happen soon." Rick said and they picked up the pace.

After about ten minutes it happened. A large transporter stopped beside them with screeching tires, the side door sliding open and two men with masks on shooting at them. Kate realized that they had been hit by tranquilizer darts when she saw the ends sticking out of her body. She tried to turn around and run and drag Rick with her but her eyes were already falling shut.

She only partially felt herself hit the ground before strong arms grabbed her and dragged her into the transporter.

* * *

"Wake up!" a female voice shouted through the curtain of unconsciousness. Kate opened her eyes to see a middle-aged woman standing in front of her, long black hair framing a face that saw too much hardship. When the woman saw Kate awake she went over to Rick whose had was still hanging low.

Kate flinched when the woman gave Rick a hard slap on the cheek, yelling the wake up call at him like she had at Kate. Rick slowly woke up, lifting his head and looking around. When his eyes found Kate, his features relaxed slightly.

The look that passed between them told each other more than words could express. They were scared, being bound to uncomfortable chairs with an unknown woman screaming at them. Her eyes told him 'I love you' and his reciprocated in kind.

"Well well, now that you are finally awake, you can start to give me some answers." the woman started in very spanish accented english. "Tell me the name of your associate."

"I have no idea who you are talking about." Rick said, which earned him another slap in the face.

"Don't take me for a fool. This man!" she shouted and held up a picture, showing both of them together with John Dough in the alley where they had met them first during their stay.

"He saved us from a mugging. We thanked him but didn't ask for his name."

"Don't lie to me. You were seen leaving with him. You entered your hotel together and he didn't come out that night. Furthermore, my men went in but only came out feet first the morning after!"

"Your men..." Rick said to himself, loud enough for Kate to hear.

"What was that?" the woman asked him.

"You're Nico Salamandra!" Rick exclaimed.

"You're very astute Mister Castle." she said and his eyes went wide. "Yes, I know who you are. And your IDs were in your pockets. Just because you are a rich author and your squeeze is a police detective won't stop me from killing you when I have what I want."

"You know he will come for you." Kate said.

"So? I am guarded by a group of elite bodyguards who only live to obey me. This compound is walled and riddled with sensors, if a pigeon sneezes on the ground outside I will know about it. This window is made of two inch bulletproof glass. The door is solid steel and only I know the code for the lock. Nobody but me gets in here. So even if he gets onto this compound, he will never make it into this room. And even if he manages to get to the door, my men will kill him once he tries to open it."

Kate looked at Rick and sighed. She had no idea how to get out of this situation. Their only hope was John Dough but he probably didn't even know where they were. Hell, Kate didn't even know where they were.

"Call him!" the woman shouted.

"Excuse me?" Kate asked.

"I said call him."

"How? Why would I have contact information for him?"

"Oh you don't? Then whose phone is that?" the woman asked and held up an old looking cell phone.

"Not mine and not his." Kate answered and pointed to Castle with her head.

"Really? Strange that it only has a single phone number in its memory."

"Even if it is his phone and I call him, what should I say?" Kate asked.

"Tell him, you have information on me and you want to meet."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because if you don't I will kill your lover here. Slowly and very painfully. And you will get to watch me do it. Lets call, shall we?" Nico said and dialed. She put the phone on speaker and held it close to Kate.

"Yes?" came the familiar voice of John Dough out of the speaker.

"Beckett here. I have information for you on Nico Salamandra. Can we meet in person?"

"What kind of information?" came back from Dough.

"Personal ones, maybe even the location."

"Personal ones like Nico Salamandra is a woman? Or that she is in a secure room behind bulletproof glass on a walled compound guarded by fifty bodyguards who are very well armed?" Dough said and Nico's eyes went wide with surprise with Kate and Rick showing the same reaction.

"YOU WON'T COME NEAR ME, YOU HEAR ME?" Nico shouted into the phone. "IF I SEE YOU OR GET WORD THAT YOU WERE SEEN ON MY COMPOUND I WILL KILL YOUR FRIENDS!"

"You made a grave mistake Nico." Dough stated calmly.

"And what is that?!" Nico yelled into the phone.

"You assumed that bulletproof glass is really bulletproof." he said and hung up.

Nico Salamandra had only a second to wonder what Dough meant before her head exploded.

* * *

John Dough smiled when he saw the confused look of his target through the scope. His gloved finger depressed the trigger, which caused a chain of reaction that in 99 of a hundred cases resulted in the death of the target.

Combined with the design of his custom sniper rifle, that he could dismantle in less than a minute into pieces that fit easily into his backpack, the ammo he used made the usual protections of bad people obsolete. The barrel, made with his own exact specification was a hair's breath thinner than the bullet. Half a dozen very flat panels running the inside length of the barrel sheared off the excess width of the bullet, the panel alignment causing the bullet to start a fast rotation, which guaranteed a stable flight.

The bullet exited the barrel 0,06 seconds after the depressing of the trigger with a exit velocity of 2859 feet per second. Since the target was only 925 feet away, the bullet reached it in less than a second. The flash was bright enough to be seen by Nico Salamandra but with a flying time of less than half a second she had no time to react at all.

During its flight, the bullet lost speed and height due to gravity and air friction. But the scope was adjusted to compensate exactly that. When the target was in the center of the crosshairs, the barrel targeted a point about 15 inch above the target. At a shorter distance this could have led to him missing the target but the scope was preset to exactly 925 feet.

When he told her that bulletproof glass is not really bulletproof, he was right of course. Glass could be made thicker or harder but it wasn't different from other armor materials. It was subject to the same laws of nature and those don't allow the existence of an immobile object which is the glass and an unstoppable force which is the bullet. Bulletproof glass was designed to stop or deflect the most widespread forms of ammunition that was used worldwide by hitmen, terrorists or homicidal maniacs. But a high caliber bullet can destroy it.

As can specialized ammunition. His bullet was, like his rifle, made to his exact specifications. The core was a small amount of cesium, surrounded by a tungsten mantle formed like a needle with the whole thing encased in a lead sabot.

When the bullet hit the glass, it transferred an enormous amount of kinetic energy. The glass, which in reality was an extremely viscous liquid bulged inwards but when the strain of the impacting force became too much it began to buckle. Microscopic cracks appeared at the point of impact which spread outwards in a cobweb shape.

These hair cracks were prove that the glass was doing its job because the formation of those cracks used up a lot of energy. The glass buckled in a very small area but it stopped the bullet. The rest of the window held and the 33 grams of lead were flattened by the impact without penetrating the glass.

The tungsten needle wouldn't be as easily stopped like the soft lead. The 3 millimeter needle with the bulge at the end shed its lead hull and broke through the weakened glass. It covered the distance to Nico Salamandra's head in the blink of an eye with the uneven crack structure of the glass impacting its flight stability.

The needle started to spin slightly and hit Nico Salamandra right under her left eye. The skull density changed the trajectory, the bullet ripping through the brain matter and shattering apart. The cesium reacted with the brain fluids in the same way every column 1 elements reacted with water. Violently. The explosion fractured the back of her skull, the pressure pushing the brain matter into the direction of the fracture.

Before Nico Salamandra's body had came to rest of the floor, John Dough had his sniper rifle packed up again and a zip line shot at the walls above the next door window. Hooking himself to it, he flew over the compound, closing in on the window that was made of regular glass.

* * *

Exactly 85 seconds after Nico Salamandra's brain had been distributed around her room, a crash was heard in the neighboring room. Thirty seconds after that crashing sound, an immensely hot and bright flame shot out of the lock. Both Rick and Kate, having seen that on TV and in real life, saw the effect of a thermite charge eating through the lock.

When the charge had fizzled out, a kick opened the door and a grim looking John Dough entered the room, wasting no time with words and cutting the binds of Rick and Kate. They got up and looked in astonishment at the window that had a small hole in it surrounded by a cobweb of slivered glass.

"How...?" Kate started but Dough silenced her with a gesture.

"We don't have time for long explanations of my awesomeness. Her bodyguards know I'm here and they will attack soon. We need to get ready."

"Ready how?" Rick asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

Instead of answering, Dough shed his cloak that was still studded with broken glass and revealed a tight black bodyglove underneath, with body armor covering his chest, arms and legs except for the joints. He took off his backpack, which was more a roll of linen and unrolled it, revealing a startling collection of guns and knives.

Taking out two handguns he passed one to Kate and one to Rick along with several magazines. Kate, her police training taking over, checked the gun and put the spare magazines into her pocket. Rick on the other hand looked at the gun with a face that told of apprehensive revulsion.

"I know that you are not used to killing other people Mister Castle." Dough said. "But you might not have another choice. But to make it easier for both of you, it would be best if you concentrated on covering my back. You do not want to be in front of me when the shooting starts."

They heard the heavy trampling of several pairs of feet coming down the hallway towards the room they were in. Dough mentioned for them to get behind the large table that dominated the inner side of the room while he took position next to the door. Only then did they notice the Katana in Dough's hand.

The first of the bodyguards that came through the door died without uttering a sound, his head almost sheared of his body as the Katana passed right through the neck, opening it to the bone. The second one had time to shout out his surprise before the Katana was rammed into his chest, piercing it at the exact location to pass between two ribs through the heart and almost half of the blade exiting the back.

The third bodyguard tried to stop but his momentum carried him onto the blade, his position relative to the one in front of him making the sword penetrate his heart as well. Dough, realizing the Katana was stuck in two bodies, quickly let go of it and drew a wicked looking combat knife before retreating two steps into the room at an angle away from the door.

More bodyguards came through the door, shouting and were met with fist and blade by someone who was an expert at hand to hand fighting. Every swing of the knife wounded an enemy, opened an artery or severed ligaments. One bodyguard tried to kick the assassin but Dough caught his leg, rammed his knife into the thigh and pulled it down to the knee, opening it up. Three quick slashes into the chest silenced the screaming attacker.

Once again Kate couldn't believe her eyes. It took fifteen seconds for John Dough to kill eight elite bodyguards without firing a single shot. And he wasn't even breathing hard. Rick looked as if he might throw up at the grisly sight in front of him. The carpet was wet with blood, the coppery tang of it permeating the air around them.

Without saying a word, Dough emptied the desk and stuffed every file he found into his backpack and then mentioned for them to follow him, before grabbing his sword from the dead guards and setting out at a brisk pace with his familiar silence. No footsteps were heard from him while she and Rick made comparatively lots of noise. Suddenly another group of bodyguards closed in on them. Dough ushered them into a nook in the hallway as the attackers opened fire with their automatic rifles, the noise deafening in the confined space.

Dough mentioned for four attackers and Kate nodded. Quickly leaning out during a break in the fire he popped off two shots and mentioned two fingers to Kate, again amazing her with his marksmanship. Another burst of enemy fire rattled through the corridor, hitting the walls and bouncing off, making the group realize that the walls were reinforced concrete. Kate sent a silent prayer as thanks for it prevented deep penetration.

Another break in the fire led to Dough shooting the other two guards in quick succession, opening the way for them again. When they entered a large room with a raised gallery, their problems multiplied extremely. About twenty guards were standing on the gallery, guns raised. Still, they had a bit of luck, when the space before the door was wide enough for them to hide.

"They have a machine gun." Dough stated exasperated before any way of answering by the deafening roar of a rapid fire, belt-fed machine gun along with a number of automatic rifles. The large caliber of the machine gun caused concrete splinters to split off the walls. If they couldn't silence the gun, it would eat through the walls at some point.

Kate looked over to Dough, who was digging around in his pack, taking out a tube and a few round objects. With a shock she realized it what it was and she pointed Rick's gaze into Dough's direction.

"He has a grenade launcher!" she shouted over the noise of the gunfire. Rick's eyes went wide as they watched the assassin work, holding the tube in a ready position. When the machine gun stopped firing, for whatever reason, Dough held it out and pushed the button of the tube launcher, sending a grenade in a parabolic arc towards their enemies.

A loud bang that put the gunfire noise to shame rang out from the confines of the hall, followed by screams of pain from guards who were hit by shrapnel before a series of secondary explosions that sounded like extremely loud firecrackers told them that the machine gun ammunition must have detonated.

Silence followed as the smoke cleared. When Rick and Kate opened their eyes again, they noticed John Dough gone. Kate risked a quick look, seeing Dough speeding up the ramp to the gallery and methodically dispatching the wounded guards. Although she knew it was necessary, she felt repulsed by the coldhearted actions he showed.

"Come on. The garage is this way." Dough yelled and took off towards a side door.

Rick and Kate ran behind him, entering the large garage filled with several types of vehicles. Motorcycles, SUVs, pick up trucks and regular cars. Despite several vehicles standing close to them, Dough ran towards a black SUV in the back of the garage.

"Get in!" he shouted before jumping inside. Rick and Kate got in behind them, finding Dough in the back of the vehicle, sitting at some contraption looking like a turret.

"You drive." Dough said to Kate, pointing at the keys in the ignition.

"How do we get out? The door is closed." she asked.

"I will take care of that, just drive. This car is armored and heavy, factor that into your driving style."

Kate took off towards the big double doors. Dough activated something behind them, lifting himself up through an opening in the roof. Before she could wonder what he was doing, they heard the whining sound of turning minigun barrels before a tremendous amount of bullets impacted against the doors. Dough raked them in a circling motion, weakening them before Kate rammed through them, the outside light momentarily blinding her. She sped over the compound towards the main gate and Dough again raked the minigun over it, shooting out the large locks, making the door swing open by itself.

Bullets were impacting the vehicle, leading Dough to turn the gun and strafing it left and right, turning the remaining guards to pulp before Kate rammed through the Gates and they sped towards the near city.

"We're outside the city." Rick mentioned, looking around and seeing smoke rising from the cartel compound. Dough lowered the gun down into the SUV and locked the turret.

"Brace yourself." he said before the shockwave of a huge explosion hammered them from behind.

"What was that?" Rick asked.

"I think their gasoline tanks exploded." Dough answered.

"How?"

"Someone might have placed a few explosives with timers on them."

"Is that why we had to hurry like that?" Kate asked.

"What do you think. Drive faster please, we should be gone before the authorities show up."

Kate floored the SUV, speeding down the road and following the directions she got from Dough. Their route led them through a forest and over fields, away from the main roads until they hit the edge of the city.

"We'll leave the car here. Would be too suspect to drive something like this into the city." Dough ordered.

They got out and started walking through an area of the city tourists usually avoided. But every time some people closed in on them, one look from John Dough made them turn around and give them a wide berth. It took them twenty minutes to walk to the closest cab station.

"Our paths will diverge here." Dough started. "By the way, you don't need to leave your vacation yet, the only cartel members who knew about you are dead."

"What about this superior to those gangers in our hotel room?" Rick asked.

"I questioned him. He won't bother anyone again."

"But what if he told anyone else about us?" Kate asked.

"Unlikely. The cartel was working like an underground movement. Salamandra issued orders to certain cells who aren't in direct contact. Each cell works in a certain district so they don't cross themselves but it makes inter-cell communications difficult. But now we should depart. I have to report to my employer that the mission is accomplished. Until next time, detective. Mister Castle."

"Wait." Kate said. "How did you know where we were taken?"

"Oh, that reminds me. I want my transmitter back. I put one on your ring that you wear on that chain around your neck last night." he answered, earning a glare from Kate at his audacity.

After he retrieved his bug, Dough shook their hands and walked away. Kate and Rick got into a cab and drove to their hotel. When they entered their room, Kate turned to Rick.

"Listen Rick, should we ever go on a vacation again and we see John Dough somewhere there, we will pack and leave immediately. If we see him again in New York, I will take an emergency vacation and we will get the hell out of there."

"Agreed." Rick said and hugged her tight.

But as dangerous and nerve-wracking the whole experience was, Rick couldn't help but smile. It might have aged them ten years but it has been an amazingly exciting time. Only then did he notice the package on the floor by the door. After opening it, he found a note that said 'Maybe usable for your books'. Rifling through the papers, he found them to be reports from his previous cases.

Rick laughed to himself and showed them to Kate. It would take weeks to get through them, but he was sure, his new character would have a lot to do.

* * *

**A/N: Well, I hope you liked it. But I just realized it was kind of longer than I expected.**

**Review please :)**


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